Here's How the New Year Starts...

...not with a bang, but a whimper (sorry, T. S. Eliot).

Happy New Year, ya'll! Hope it's good for you.

I had a great Christmas, with overlapping visits from my children and their significants. Dot and her guy, Pete, showed up the Saturday before Christmas and stayed until about 3pm Christmas Day; Dan and Carly, his lady, showed up around noon on Christmas and stayed until the Thursday after. So I had company for about a week.

Dot and Pete did a great deal of yard work. They built a firepit in place of my burnpile. Here's a picture of the firepit with a fire:

They cut up the limb that fell a couple of months ago, so we had plenty of firewood to burn. We roasted marshmallows and made smores, something I haven't done since Girl Scout Camp!

Behind the firepit in the picture you can see my old shed. We cleaned that out. I can't list everything we found in there, but a partial list of contents includes old mason jars, a half-full bottle of whiskey (we dumped it out), and assorted tools (a circular saw, a hand planer, a hand lathe, a grease gun), plus enough flammable liquids to worry me. So, all I have to do to turn this into a chicken coop is rebuild the roof and put in a new floor. And Pete reinforced the open part of the shed so that the roof isn't sagging anymore.

Dan and Carly and I couldn't really get out in the yard because it rained all day Wednesday. But we read and knitted and watched movies; then they made two excellent pizzas and we played two games of Scrabble.

I think their visits were the highlights of Christmas for me. We had fun at my mom's and ate too much good food, but I enjoyed my time with my children. They've only been to my house once since I bought it, but I've been to their house in Austin many, many times. So, they owe me a few more visits!

The new year started ominously--the bathroom shower started dripping and I couldn't get the garage door down with the remote (I used the rake handle). But, on an optimistic note, Bluebirds have moved into the birdhouse on my front porch! I watched them move in today.

I hope the Bluebird of Happiness, Prosperity and Peace lands on your porch, too!

Finally, A Vacation--sort of...

Yep, it's the calm before the spring storm--um, I mean, semester! Grades are in, I've actually had a couple of days at home (and one day at the bookstore, which I'll get to in a minute), and I've actually managed to alphabetize my cds, dvds and vhs tapes, which I haven't been able to do since I moved into my house. I woke up Sunday and just decided to do it, after sitting on my hands (really!) to keep from trying to work. I've been in work mode for a year and a half, so not doing something is difficult for me.

And, after bending and stretching to get things into place, I felt as though I had been on a stairstepper at the gym. When I went into the bookstore to work on Monday, I was sore, as though I'd been through a tough workout. And, of course, standing for eight hours didn't help work out the kinks. I'm still feeling sore, but I'm sure I'll recover from that just in time to go back to the bookstore Saturday (hopefully, not for the entire day).

My daughter and her boyfriend are heading this way for Christmas, so I'll have company for a few days. That will be nice, since my family 45 miles north thinks it's too far to drive to my house. My daughter is driving from Austin to Arlington, TX, and then to here. I just don't think my family has a good excuse--after all, I drive the distance and back nearly every day of the semester.

This will be a lean Christmas, what with rising gas prices, new tires for the car this summer, and price increases on everything. So, I've done a great deal of knitting, especially slippers, because they are fast! I think I've got most of my gifts covered, and I know my family members love handmade gifts. Slippers, plus cookies, plus biscuit mix, plus muffins=satisfaction!

I hope everyone has a great holiday, whatever you celebrate! I plan to sleep as much as possible and get ready for the new year.