Happy New Year, 2007!

This has been a different New Year's Eve for us. We stayed home while our grown children and their wives went to a party. Now the grandparents, we stayed with the grandkids. After all, we had parents to do that for us on many NYE and now its our turn. We played with playdough, arranged a big wooden puzzle of the United States, watched "Shrek", read the Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme boardbook for the umpteenth time, bathed little bodies, served up milk and then put them to bed. Ahh! What a nice feeling of accomplishment.

After the children were alseep all snug in their beds, I thought that Kim and I would at least stay up to watch "the ball" drop on TV and sip a little champagne at the stroke of midnight. I thought we'd give each other a big kiss, toast in the New Year and wish each other health, happiness and prosperity. Well, what actually happened was Kim gave it up at 11:20. I watched Garrison Keillor with the Prairie Home Companion show on channel 8 while the chilled champagne remained corked in the refridgerator. When Garrison began to sing "Auld Lang Syne" at the stroke of midnight, I sipped a room temperature Merlot alone. I decided that I'd at least get my kiss and slipped into the bedroom to find Kim asleep, plugged into his iPod. So, I tiptoed to his side, leaned down, and gave him a little peck on his check. He wriggled his nose and turned over. "Happy New Year!" I whispered.

I'm not complaining because I got to babysit with my two precious grandchildren on NYE, 2007.

2006 Blog Overview

My friend posted on her blog, a neat little way to recap her year of blogs. So I gave it a try. What I've done is to take the first post of each month in 2006 and copy the last sentence of the entry. I cheated a little bit though because I decided that the last sentence didn't tell enough. Here's how mine came out:
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One of the characters in the "Traveling Pants" story put it something like this, "...isn't trying not to be sad (about your mother’s death) harder than just letting yourself be sad?" I would have to agree.

What better way to learn about growing relationships with our students than to first grow them in each other?

Spring is here and it is just the right time to rejuvenate myself.
Next weekend maybe I'll get a pedicure and a manicure...oh heck, maybe even a massage. :-)

My days of teaching are numbered and I won't be sad to see this year end. So turn up the CD player so I can listen to the music of lazy days. I'm ready.

Please pray for this awful disease to be conquered. It truly is a matter of Life or Death.

Oh, what do you know? Then it WOULD be breakfast. Or as my movie chef said, "a late night sandwich." yum!__"...here is my handle, here is my spout."

They then sent my password to my email and I was able to retrieve my blog and posts. __Happy blogging. :-)

I am grateful to everyone that made this 54 year old feel loved.

In the meantime, I have to clean house, wash clothes, plan lessons and grade papers. Labor Day, 2006...a sunny Saturday for my sanity.

My mom's little black dress is a precious treasure I hope to keep until it can be passed on to the next generation.

However, in the end, I am always glad I can say those two kinder words, “I’m sorry.”

With God’s blessing, my sons’ families will bring a warmth and happiness to Christmas that will satisfy my longing for the season. __Happy Holidays to all of my readers…whoever you are.

Joy and Peace in 2007

Merry Christmas Day

Here it is. It finally got here. Christmas Day! uhmm, :-| not the excitement it used to be. That little tree behaves the way I'm sure thousands of kids are feeling this morning...a tad hyper! However, for me, I'm sitting here with my black cat, Baby, at my side, husband still in bed (well, some things never change!) and coffee waiting for me to pour a cup.

It was last night, Christmas Eve as a matter of fact, before I put any decorations up around my house. That elfin Christmas tree my son left in our garage worked out nicely. As I pulled it out of the box, assembled the top and bottom together and placed it atop the coffee table, it reminded me of "A Charlie Brown Christmas". But with a string of lights and some ornaments, it didn't look half bad. I think it might even be singing a carol like the funny tree on this post. "Oh, Christmas Tree, oh, Christmas Tree"...

After I decorated the tree, I hung the family stockings, with care of course, over the fireplace. The red stockings I've decorated and made additions to with each new family member over the years, has already been filled with an assortment of trinkets and treats, waiting to be revealed. I have to admit, Christmas stockings hanging over my three snowmen on the hearth, makes a cozy sight.

Today, Kim and I will load up our meager offerings and join his family at his brother's house. It'll be nice to visit, share a meal, and exchange a gift. This year we decided not to draw names, but have gifts unlike last year with no gifts at all. So, it was my idea that we each bring one gift that centered around a theme of some sort. You know, what kind of Christmas is it without presents? Well, the theme that was decided by the siblings was "books". Books. uhm. :-| Not what I had in mind, but its something. Let's just say that I've warmed to the idea. When it comes to a reading family, the one I married into are junkies of the printed word. They consume books like a vacuum. On the other hand, I read for information, not pleasure. Okay, that isn't entirely true. Sometimes I read for pleasure, but not as a natural exercise. I have to preplan and preview many offerings before I will settle on just the right context to devour hours of my time. No, I don't take reading a book for pleasure lightly. In fact, I would say that one of the big accomplishments of my adulthood has been actually finishing more than one novel cover to cover.

Tomorrow our three sons and their wives and our two grandkids will be here for our "Day After Christmas Day" celebration with our own family. It will be so much fun to listen to my boys "cut-up" and exchange witty, often intelligent, banter between each other. It fills my heart with love and joy to see those three men together, happily talking and being brothers. That will make this Christmas delay worth the wait. In addition to that, my grandchildren will be playing, running, laughing and opening another round of presents. It is going to be so much fun that my mouth is upturned just thinking about it!

Wherever you are, whenever you celebrate, I pray that you are with someone you love.
Happy Holidays!