I've been getting chills each of the last three nights, reading Tyler's current favorite little holiday book about a mouse whose truck gets stuck in the snow trying to deliver candy to Santa. Marty mouse spells out S.O.S. in candy canes and hopes for Santa to spot him from the sleigh...

Given the location and situation, I guess the terrible news about James Kim was all but inevitable. I didn't know him personally, but feel like I did, having watched his soft-spoken reports for years on TechTV. You could just tell what a sweet person he was.

It's impossible not to keep replaying imaginary versions of the family's experience in one's head, and equally impossible not to have enormous admiration for the physical and emotional fortitude of wife Kati, who reportedly kept both her daughters — seven months and four years — alive for a week in the snow with breast milk, burning car tires, and god knows what else. Imagine what a Mom would likely have on hand in the way of sustenance for such a trip: a tupperware bowl of Cheerios perhaps, some Dum-Dum suckers? She and James pulled off a miracle keeping those girls safe and well. I hope Kati can hold on to that and draw yet more strength from it in the days ahead.