Yes, the weather outside has been frightful. The fire isn't so delightful these days, since few can afford the extra gas or electricity. And many have no place to go, thanks to the foreclosure crisis and the recent spate of layoffs.

Still, at Christmas, acts of kindness pile up like snowdrifts, burying those developments for at least one day each year.

In that case, let it snow.

Just in the past couple of weeks, The Journal Times has reported examples of caring and generosity. Those are exactly the qualities the holidays embody.

An 88-year-old Racine woman continues to pursue her hobby of making quilts, many of them for charity, despite the fact she's legally blind. Students from Trinity Lutheran School decided to forego their internal gift exchange and donate to a Toys for Tots program.

Wisconsin Air National Guard members took seriously ill children for a flight on a refueling tanker. Julia Burney-Witherspoon was honored by ABC News as one of its "Persons of the Year" for her work connecting kids with available books. A musical benefit at a local bar collected blankets for homeless veterans.

Add in all of the parents and volunteers who help prepare the annual children's Nativity plays, man the Santa hot lines and other holiday trademarks and we could continue this pep talk for hours.

This is the time to reconnect with family and

re-energize for the coming year. That year promises massive challenges, to be sure, but it also leaves an opportunity for hope. As long as that's present in our accounts, we can pass along to our children and grandchildren more than the newest "Hannah Montana" accessory or the latest version of "Guitar Hero."

The annual dose of Christmas spirit should remind us we don't have to leave our children and grandchildren a world where government corruption is expected. They don't have to inherit from us a place that's hopelessly bogged down in the trenches of partisan warfare.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. No matter which direction the mercury in the thermometer heads, if we bring the spirit back from our

get-togethers, one thing is clear:

All the way home we'll be warm.