It's beginning to feel a lot like

Christmas!  Vacations have begun, and it's cold outside.  Cookies are eaten almost as soon as they are made.  There is even a little snow on the ground.  We're approaching the Rochester and Chicago levels, as the weather shows snow almost every day in the last couple of weeks for Fairport and Dundee is not far behind.  We may have snow here on Christmas.

Annie is coming home tonight, if all her flights are on time and pat-downs proceed smoothly.  Margaret's on vacation, Joe is home and Mary starts her vacation tomorrow!!  

Joe and John spent last week in Pittsfield, with plans for getting all kinds of work done.  But Mary's cousin John Hayes was sanding floors, so our ability to create dust and dirt was severely restricted.  So we fell back to the next best thing.  Baseball.  We got in the car and spent the afternoon in Cooperstown at the Hall of Fame.  Lots of good exhibits on baseball's beginnings and its integration.  I think we liked the modern day rooms the best; interesting to see how they approached the steroids era, including exhibiting the ball which Barry Bonds hit, with an asterisk carved in it, as voted on by the fans.

We did do a little sanding on the staircase banister, and the floors came out looking great.  Radiators also played into the week as Johnny helped with their placement of slightly raised floors, and then Joe hurt his back as we tried to carry one up the stairs.  He is out of commission for a few weeks but looks like he's feeling better than he did that first day.

We had what could have been our most memorable anniversary.  Margaret put together a collage of photos and Joe made us a big Middle Eastern dinner, and we were joined by James and Tamara.  Special.

A couple of Christmas parties and attendance at a presentation of Handel's Messiah have rounded out the weeks.  I imagine and hope everyone else is having similar, eventful occasions.  

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!   Love from down here.

Travels

Why am I surprised that it gets cold in December?  Because it seems like it was just October, or August.

And here we are at the second Sunday in Advent.  Time to catch our breath.

Last Friday, after Thanksgiving, we drove up to Pittsfield, dropping Grandma off in Hightstown on the way.  We had a couple of house meetings (kitchen and bank loan) so Mary came along and flew back home on Monday evening.  We went out to a new pizza place with John and Marilyn and then over to their house to watch a movie on the Cuban missile crisis (good).  They are into advance planning for a trip to China in March.

I stayed up to try to do a little work to get rooms ready for sanding the floors.  Danny called up from Stonington offering to help paint and, never one to accept company -- and free labor -- I of course accepted.  Had he not come, I think I would still be there.  But besides sanding and painting, we went out to a yoga retreat for a vegetarian dinner and had long breakfasts at a local "joint".  We also saw a movie to put on your "miss it" list:  The Tempest.

Joe arrived home from his extended trip to Lebanon, Syria and Turkey with photos and stories and insights which go against the grain of what we are to think about that part of the world, such as Christian enclaves and Crusader castles.  He is now back to a job search as his AID offer still hasn't materialized.  Margaret is busy at work - she bought a cage for her dog who is getting into trouble at home when no one is here - dropping presents for us around the house.  And we talked to Annie this morning - she too continues to interview and plans to move to a new place.  Check out her new blog: http://3rdculturekidinthe3rdworld.wordpress.com/.  Looking forward to her trip home in a couple of weeks. 

We talked to David and Andrew this week.  Snow and jobs.  Andrew also told us that Billy has completed his degree. Congratulations!  And Grandma told us of her adventure trying to connect with Sean so that he could pick up a couple of lounge chairs.   No we know what we did in a world without cell phones - we waited and waited.

And to top off the week - Mary is the last person in America to sign up for Facebook!  She already has four friends, three not including me.  

Happy December!  Love from down here.