Merry Christmas to All!

I was kind of hoping for a Christmas miracle to wake up without this damned cold but nope it's still here.  I keep going outside to do stuff like shovel trying to freeze it out but that hasn't worked.  It does make me feel a little better and it makes me tired so I rest a bit more.  Durwood thinks I should rest A LOT more especially with a cold but I'm pretty stubborn (no one's surprised, right?) and I don't like to rest.  I'm content to sit down and do stuff like sew or knit, surf the web or even read but just sit and zone in front of the tube?  No thanks.  I am trying to stay away from Durwood because he doesn't need a cold on top of his chronic lung adventures.  We exchanged sweet cards and a kind of glancing hug this morning, he's even sleeping in the other room until this is over.  The coolest thing is that we both wrote in our cards how we are each glad that we have had the other as a partner in all the adventures, good and bad, over the years.  We do have fun together, even when he's being totally goofy and I'm dithering.  I forgot to have a little Boilo last night and settling into a good sleep was a bit of a trick so you can bet I won't forget tonight.  I got all the presents wrapped and I was right, it's a pretty paltry pile this year but that's alright, it's the time we spend together not the gifts, plus I'm really excited about the gifts I got everybody.  I feel like I hit more than one homerun.  I had to stop myself from counting how many packages each "kid" had.  Do you do that?  Did you when your kids were small?  I hate that I do, I don't remember counting to see who got more when I was a kid.  Although I can't have been as perfect a kid as I remember being.  Can I?  Nah, probably not.  If Mom were still around she'd tell me that I was, though, I know she would.  I am totally excited to be within a week of finishing the Maple Tree Scarf I started on last New Year's Day.  I made a ridge of garter (knit down and back) every day echoing the look of the maple tree out my window, so it's brown and black and every leaf color from palest spring green to the last gold of autumn, and I am so ready to be done with it I can't tell you.  It's gorgeous and very long, over 100" the last time I measured sometime in November, so I'm not sure how I'll wear it but you can be sure that I will at least once.  No fringe, though.  Oh, hey, I just got a text from CH that their new granddaughter, Nora Grace, arrived this morning at 7:15, 6 lb. 13 oz., 19" long.  Now that's a Christmas present.  I teased her that I was a bit disappointed that they didn't call her Baby Jesus but I truly don't think she even heard me.  This is their very first grandbaby and I do think CH would have shared carrying her if she could have.  Thank god the baby came a little early, I don't think CH could have stood to wait much longer, but too bad she came on Christmas.  I've always felt sorry for Christmastime babies.  Maybe they'll celebrate her half-birthday on June 25th just so she gets a separate day--and a full complement of presents.  Welcome, Nora Grace!

December 25--Peter Paul Rubens, Rubens, His Wife Helena Fourment and One of Their Children.  He is old and has eyes only for her.  She is young and beautiful, and worried that the little one is misbehaving.  He hold her arm as if to draw her attention.  Is he sorry the child is there?  Behind her the red and blue macaw terrorized a rosebush.  At first it seems an idyllic scene but look closer  and reality rears up and off the canvas.

My head's filling up again.  Time to do something about that.  Have a wonderful day.  Hug someone you love, even if it's yourself.
--Barbara Sue