Father's Day

A greeting from the boys for their father, who yesterday took a serious fall coming into the house and today is unable to walk, once again.  We hope his seriously banged up (and bloody) knees recover quickly.  We are also sending him best wishes for the hospital testing that is coming up this week -- please let everything turn out alright!  Get well, Papa -- walking with Mama is JUST NOT THE SAME without you with us! 

And the Cat Ate the Christmas Tree

Happy New Year's Eve, my friends (and family).

Christmas was, as usual, in Houston and proved a bountiful and beautiful celebration. We really enjoyed having the love of family and dear friends around us.

The trip was half wonderful and half exasperating, mainly because I couldn't get over the December virus, even with the weather warm enough to do without a coat the entire time we were away. Sister-in-law also had the cold, but she manned up far better than I did. And finally we managed to have a small mishap with the rental car when we hit a curb and flattened a very expensive tire during a Boxing Day celebration.

One great reward of the trip was a bountiful gift certificate just for me a the Houston Penzy's spice store. I came home with fabulous spices for roasting, baking, and general cooking. I unpacked those immediately and put them on the shelves above the stove. I also have a new waffle iron to try out.

The dogs traveled well and were pretty even tempered guests. The Houston cat, at age 16, was not as thrilled to see intruders into his home -- and the pay back was a sneaky devouring of the beautifully decorated Christmas tree, which, of course, made the cat's tummy very upset. Vomiting ensued for several days. The Christmas tree had to be dismantled on Christmas night but we had already distributed the vast array of presents from underneath, so it was of no matter.

We got home safely on Tuesday evening and ever since I've been sleeping long hours and trying to find some good health. Each day I unpack either a box or a bag which currently leaves only one box of Christmas presents to unpack now.

When the mood hits, I rise from my bed and Hubby takes me to the movies. We've seen The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Mission Impossible since we got home and on Christmas night we took in The War Horse with family.

Weather here in the mid-west is unseasonably warm. I'm not sure I really like it being 60 degrees in late December. But I am ready to wave goodbye to 2011. It was not our best year and it's time, we hope, to move on to better health, happier moods, and a bit more prosperity. On that note, I'll have to go now and remind Hubby to buy a lottery ticket with which to ring in the New Year.

September -- Goodbyes and Hellos

Goodbye to:

When one starts school at the beginning of August, it feels that summer has been truncated into only a two month span. It also seems like I've been in fall for the past month, even with 100+ temperatures nearly every week. But with the start of September, I'm willing to celebrate fall -- even if the crisp weather is still at least 30 days away and leaves won't start changing colors for another six weeks. So . . .

Hello to:

Merry Holidays!

When you are traveling and living out of a motel, Thanksgiving dinner is anticlimatical. And there are no leftovers for that cold plate of dressing at midnight or the dippy turkey sandwich in your brown paper lunch bag. So Saturday Hubby baked the turkey and today he created all the wonderful sides that make a Thanksgiving dinner something to be truly grateful for. And we ate. The boys ate wings. We ate breast meat. The boys crunched on dry leg meat. We savored cornbread dressing and the drippiest, most cinnamon candied sweet potatoes this side of the Mason Dixon line. Oh, my! The eats were good!

Then we laid around and listened to Christmas music and read our respective books / magazines / and half-watched the football games.

The Christmas spirit descended with the advent of holiday feasting, the music from the past week, and the myriad bags of Christmas presents littering the living room floor waiting to be packed for Huston. I feel happily, deliciously holiday-ish.

"It's a wonderful time of the year . . ."