And so dear Blog World, I wish a merry Christmas to anyone
who stumbles across my blog. Today is
the big day that people prepare for and look forward to, and then poof – it is
done. Well yes, it is mostly done,
except I did not send out any Christmas cards, and I didn’t really finish
decorating the house. But it’s all
OK. Next year, should we be lucky enough
to live that long, I will get another chance to do it right.
So, I kicked off six courses for University #2 on December 5th,
while at the same time doing finals week at University #1 and wrapping up final
grades along with end-of-course statistics and reports for accreditation
purposes. It was a busy week, and then I made a quick trip to Washington. Emily got impatient and put up our Christmas
tree, set out our little nativity scene, and decorated the mantle. It was nice that she did all that for
us. When I had a little time the next
week, I put up lights on our rhododendron bushes outside, and we baked and
decorated cut-out cookies together. That
is something we did together when my girls were growing up - a tradition. We might make another batch this week before
Erin goes back to Louisville.
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| To remind us... |
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| Sugar cookies made by Emily and me |
Erin and Emily celebrated their 21st birthday this
month. It doesn’t seem possible that 21
years have gone by so quickly. The girls
were not home together this year, so we celebrated Emily’s birthday on her
birthday, and then celebrated Erin’s a few days later when she came home. Instead of a cake, Emily requested a pile of
donuts – and she wanted 21 candles on them.
It was quite a feat to light 21 candles before the donuts became covered
with melted wax. Erin asked for a red
velvet cake with cream cheese icing…with dinosaurs on top. We had two dinosaurs, but took one off before
lighting up the candles – two on one side and one on the other, sort of
representative of 21 – she thought 21 candles would be excessive.
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| Donut birthday cake - we're taking photos while the candles melt |
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| Erin's red velvet cake with dinosaur(s) |
Sarah came home Christmas Eve, so that was fun. To have my three girls together with me is
the best present I could ever wish for. I hope this year we are able to plan
better and take a vacation together. Emily is hoping to get an internship over
the summer and take the GRE, so we will have to wait and see how that does or
doesn’t work out. Sarah may have an
opportunity come up as well. Erin might
move to a new apartment or start a new job…so we’ll have to consider that in
our plans. I think we will visit
Philadelphia if we can make it work.
I made a pecan pie for Someone this week. He loves pecan
pie, and Someone’s mother always gifts a large bag of pecans to us every
Thanksgiving. We celebrated Christmas
last night with Someone’s family.
Everyone was there except for Someone’s daughter (Katie), who drove in today
with her boyfriend. It is nice when everyone gets together, but it’s a lot of
people and noise in one house. At least
Someone’s parents have a large house, so it’s tolerable. And now, another generation is on the
way. Katie is pregnant…we
will become grandparents this summer if all goes as planned.
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| Someone's pecan pie - cooling |
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| Someone's parents and all the grandchildren, except for Katie |
Tomorrow is supposed to be unusually warm and sunny. Someone and I are playing golf with Someone’s
dad. I haven’t played since early
November, so it will be a treat to get out.
With winter underway, any day that is warm enough to play is a
gift. The Farmer’s Almanac predicts a
hard winter is in store for us, and they are usually right. We will see.
