Christmas cheer (means fewer blog posts)

I’m off to New Orleans today to play, eat, eat some more, and do a bit of follow-up reporting for NPR about the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill.

(My son Nicholas and I are history buffs, so we also plan to spend a lot of time in New Orleans’ brilliant WW2 museum.)

The In Box won’t be on hiatus.  I’ll be checking in occasionally.  We’ll look back at some of the big stories of 2010.  We’ll have a guest blog post or two.  David and Martha will be chiming in from the NCPR news room.

But things will definitely be a little quieter around here for the next week or so.  Right now I’m sneaking out for one more ski before I catch my flight.

Before I go, let me wish all of you the best and most joyous Christmas holiday.  It’s been a fun year for conversation, debate and thinking out loud.

If our passions occasionally strained the bonds of our affections, I think we mostly brought the better angels of our nature to the table.   Not always an easy thing to do in cyberspace.

Thanks to all of you for joining in.

-Brian