Bob Peirce has been around long enough to experience many Christmases (he is now 91). He was born in (shhh!) California but got out of there fast and grew up in New England. He came to Portland in the 1950s and worked for a number of years at the Portland Art Museum, where he was lucky enough to meet Mary Beebe and get introduced to the family that runs this gallery. He was also lucky to meet a friend living in Nepal who organizes treks there and talked him into leading one. As I tell people, you go to Nepal because of the mountains but you come back because of the Sherpas. I came back many, many times (I didn't have to pay) and have ended with many, many Sherpa friends - a number of them now living here in Portland.