JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune More that just a 15-month-old boy was up in the air when Marine Staff Sgt. Jeff Vaughn played with his son Bradley before boarding the amphibious assualt ship Belleau Wood and heading to Iraq in May.

What's Inside Contest shopping trip is a Christmas wish come true The New Year doesn't always fall on Jan. 1 Raising awareness: parental stereotypes Re-gifting finds its place among holiday traditions Class puts on its holiday finest for a spot of tea Add some shimmer to holiday wardrobe Some women find their sparkle with pieces of costume jewelry With stick-to-itiveness, you, too, can tile a floor More Currents Weekend

FOCAL POINT | PICTURES OF 2004
Framing the year

Photos capture spirit, concerns, triumphs, and fears of America in 2004

This was a year of uncommon agitation, of red states and blue states, of Murphy and Frye, of ongoing war in a distant land. People were divided and anxious, but at least they cared.

A year ago, it was images of victims that lingered on the page and in the mind. Photos of homes ravaged by fire. Of a dead soldier's helmet propped on a rifle in the desert.