Its now getting to the point in our lives that "expecting" things to be the way they were in the past is not going to happen. I usually go and get the tree by myself and have to wait for someone to help me put it in the stand and bring it into the house, but this year Neil actually went with me...looked through the fields of trees and found the one he thought would be good, cut it down, loaded it in the car, and helped set it up into the livingroom. I put the lights on and decorated it as usual. Its not Martha but I like it! Guess we have to make our own special memories and not rely on others, thus not being disappointed! We have another snowday today. It is getting to nice having a 3 day weekend....doesn't pay well, but guess we compensate by getting things done at home! I am hopefully, going to clean and wrap! We are having a "family' Christmas party at my sister's house tomorrow, with siblings, nieces and nephews. We started this tradition after my mother died 4 years ago, going in order of siblings each year. I've hosted, my twin , and last year my sister Karen, this year, its Karleen's turn, next year would have been Kevin's, so unless his widow hosts, that tradition will change too. Still making little gifts I need to finish, too....Everybody have a magical day with happy thoughts....

good point about the champagne! love you.

karen, my heart goes out to you as the "make-it-real-nice" ghost of christmas slaps you into action for the holidays. i picked up a tree this weekend and had the chance to smile at all the stress out there- real and imagined. there is a place in town selling trees for $30 and all of it goes to the temporary shelter. so i didn't really care if i got little more than a twig with a needle or two. i just liked that my dollars would be an important contribution. so, i pulled up and squeezed into a spot next to the trees in a city stealth parking manuever, but i had otherwise left my type-a personality elsewhere. I found an 8' tree among the rest which were all shorter. it was impossible to tell if this would be the perfect tree because all of the branches were frozen solid in a straight up position. it looked more like a lombardy poplar than a red spruce. while others might have liked an 8' tree, the fact that you couldn't pose next to to this one, a la american gothic, and get the glowing thmbs up for finding just the right one had eliminated it from general consideration. I watched as others went through the ritual of finding a tree, posing next to it, gettting approval from the commander of their relationship and then find a tree clerk to give them a fresh cut, load it in the car, kiss their ass good-bye and watch as they created near accidents driving away with the tree handsomely poised on the roof like an 18 point buck with its tongue hanging sideways from its mouth (is it my imagination, or did i get this one right?) . as a comparative non-event, i picked up my frozen bean pole of a tree and handed the money over with one hand as i loaded my tree into my car with the other. i got home with my tree, set it up, and there it stood like a one-stick popsicle standing at attention. i received icy reactions from my family that were equal in size to the glacier that still hung in my tree's limbs. now, this is where we get to the miracle of christmas. my engineering mind had estimated that unlike the old days when you really did have to consider trees grown in the wild for their relative yuletide virtues, my tree had come from a christmas tree farm where it had been farm-raised, farm-fed, farm-manicured and farm-loved. just how bad would my tree turn out to be once the chill evaporated? sho' nuf, miracle of miracles, it in fact turned into a spriteful holiday center piece that is bringing tons 'o joy to my world!

Hi folks I'm back. Vegas was nice, the weather was warm and that counts for a lot! I played a little cards and won almost $100. that was fun. I don't like missing school though and I'm very glad to be back home.

Dave is thinking about applying for a position in Manchester, NH. Which if he does would mean we would be back living very close to Springfield. Can you imagine??

Anyone heard from Lori yet? Are you back home Lori?????

holiday is close. that is nice. i need the break and am looking forward to hanging with the fam. i have some vacation time to burn along with holiday days. i will go to montreal to shop and EAT and see a show this week. i am okay with this program!