This has been a fascinating week since we’ve been back from L.A. It’s been one thing after another all week. It actually felt good to go to church this morning and have some quiet time to think, mediate, and pray.

     And then it was off to Ace Hardware to pick-up fuses for the telephone system that decided to quit yesterday while we were trying to defrost drains and insulate walls. Now that all the “emergencies” are resolved, tomorrow I’ll be working in the basement to finish straightening up and packing away Christmas decorations and organizing linens. 

     I received a replacement printer from HP only to have it not recognized on my network by my laptop. I figured it was my laptop since I have the older one with XP, but no… it’s RJ’s, too, and he has the new one with Vista. Lucky for me, J is pretty savvy on the computer, so through remote access, he will get me up and running. My, my! What would I do without my boys?

     Today is N’s birthday and he is celebrating in Costa Rica. What a lucky guy! I called him, and of course, he did not answer. No reception. But I sang “Happy Birthday” to him anyway.  Then RJ called and sang to him again.  What fun! There will be card waiting for him when he returns to the States, but in the meantime, I wished him a glorious day.

     We had dinner at my sister’s today. Auntie A and Auntie R were there, along with my niece, my cousin S and her husband R and my sister’ husband B and son S. Food was great. We had stuffed artichokes (my favorite) and lasagna with fresh baked bread and Brown Betty for dessert. She really outdid herself.  I ate too much and enjoyed every mouthful.  We exchanged Christmas gifts since I didn’t get to see her over the holidays due to the weather. It was like celebrating Christmas all over again. I made her a knitted caplet and she got really creative and got my some fabric I had picked out when we had a girl’s afternoon out in Allentown (a very special, artsy section of Buffalo), with a very neat sewing basket and instructions for a quilted bag I wanted to make. She is so thoughtful.  I have got to come up with something nifty for her.  I still have the buttons she picked out at my favorite fabric store, so I think I’m going to have to make her a sweater or wrap so I can use those buttons.

     She gave me this beautiful Christmas card that made me cry. Gosh, I’m getting weepy in my old age. I think what makes me so emotional is that I feel so deeply about the people that mean so much to me that I get overwhelmed and it manifests itself in tears.  I picked out a birthday card for N about growing into such a wonderful man and there I was, in the store, crying.  So in my emotional state, I pick out another card for Valentine’s Day for RJ.  Needless to say, you guessed it, more tears.  Thank goodness I didn’t pick out any more cards. The salesgirl would have probably escorted me out of the store before I ruined her cards with my tears.

     The weather is starting to moderate.  I guess 20 means moderation since 0-5 has been the norm.  The winds have died down and we should stay in the 20’s for most of week before it returns to those awesome teen numbers again.  This weather has been unusually hard.  The good news is the snow here has been actually low. Buffalo has been getting a lot more snow that us. In fact, on our way home today, it continued to snow right into Pembroke. Then… no heavy snow, just a few flurries and by the time we got home… no snow at all.

     Not bad for a day’s work…