Well, I just came back from my dear friend Candy's. She pretty much blackmailed me to spend Christmas with her family, and it was well worth the two-hour (each way) drive.

As I've said before, Candy is a very devout Christian -- as is her family. She puts up with my agnosticism, never pushing me -- but never letting the matter go entirely unnoticed, either. She has never tried to evangelize me, but she's never once suppressed her own faith out of any sort of misguided "deference" for my non-beliefs. And I not only respect that, I appreciate that.

While I don't consider myself a Christian, it is the way I was raised and I have a great deal of respect for those who do believe in it. I find those anti-religious nuts almost as annoying as a lot of believers do. I think of myself as what the Jews call a "righteous Gentile" to Christianity and Judaism -- not a part of the faith, but not an enemy -- and, occasionally, an ally.

In that spirit, I took a bit of a detour on my way home to the La Salette Shrine in Enfield, New Hampshire. Every year, they put up a big light show to commemorate Christmas -- and I had a new digital camera to break in.

Mr. Duckie didn't make it into these photos, though. He didn't feel right about intruding into these images.

Here's a preview, just for Candy and those Wizbang readers who are Christians and appreciate this sort of thing.

And Merry Christmas.

(Click for larger image)