Good FRIDAY Morning!! Wonderful to hear from Joanne and Maddie! Suzanne, looks like you got some very nice gifts from Raeanne. Looking forward to seeing those slippers in April 2005! Was thinking about you this morning...I just had to turn Howard off and listen to some old fogies on a local NYC station. Howard just goes on and on and on about his new gig and how much "injustice" he's suffering. I tried to call up and say "shut up and make me laugh"!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...but the phones were busy. LOL By the time I got to within a mile of the office, he was on to funny stuff, but geez, do I need another year of his whining for the first hour? MAKE ME LAUGH!!! LMAO (Hey, I made myself laugh!) OK, another evening and no decorations. I got home after my yogilates class, and DSD was at my house. DH had finished putting new locks on two of our outside doors. Why? I've no idea. On our list of things to-do, it was probably #35, but he was so proud of himself. This evening, we are going shopping and picking up a tree on the way home. I went over this carefully with him before he left the house this morning! LOL Gotta run; I'm working on finishing up my 2004 report on how I accomplished my development and objectives...what corporate BS !! Got to get the wording 'just right' so you get a bigger bonus than the next guy. Ah, what I endure for great vacations! LOL Take care, eat healthy, and NEVER NEVER GIVE UP! DeeMarie

Good morning everyone! Almost done my cookies - one more batch to go. I do clean as I go - otherwise I'd be working on the floor! Going to start putting away my baking stuff in a couple of minutes once the last recipe is 'in the bowl' and clear off my dining table. Need the space to pile bags of stuff to go down to the in-laws for xmas and to clear out the living room floor so I can start vacuuming today. I want to have my housework done today so when we return from xmas I come back to a clean house and can relax. We are joining all of you getting inundated with snow - it's our turn big time today with a forecast of well over a foot - with blowing snow more like 2 feet already in some spots. Deja vu from this time last year, eh? Some young lad put a flyer in our mailbox for snowshoveling - by hand - I already called him since we want our house clear when we return from traveling too. I'm going to call him today in a bit to ask him to come by when the snow stops, once the plough goes by. I will do some shoveling myself. My neighbors offer to blow us out for free but I don't feel at all right about that - they won't take any money so I have declined. It sounds like a young couple on the phone doing the shoveling and they live around the corner from us - I am quite happy to hire someone needing a few dollars. We have no where to put a snow blower otherwise we'd have one right now. My back is still recovering from the manual labour and I know I have to drop some weight because it spasms when I carry a few extra pounds - doesn't take much these days. Okay, I'm stopping my whining now. I saw the weather in the bad areas on the news last night in the US. My heart goes out to everyone concerned. Not funny at all. Hard to enjoy xmas when you have no heat, running low on supplies and all you can see is more snow falling. Once I get on with my housework I'm going to work on a few craft projects so I don't keep looking out the window. Have some computer work to do too for my website/business I'm trying to prepare for the new year so that's fun too. Hugs to everyone, I will probably check in later! Peggy

Happy Christmas Eve! Maddie outdid herself (and her card brought tears to my eyes!). There is a corn stalk angel, a corn cob santa, a hand-painted gold glass ornament, a box of candy, and a lapel pin that is a palm tree with a martini glass under it (where did she get THAT idea?). You can see the pin if you look really hard on the branch on the right side of the angel's head and bottom of candy box. Thank you, dear Maddie! I'll always remember the first photo we all saw of you, highlighted in candlelight at a Christmas Eve service. Ooops, just looked and the silver tree ornament on the right side is mine. Thought I got all mine out of the picture range. Special thanks to Suzanne for walking us through the picture process! Milkdud, I am so happy you liked the ornament. I found it the week you were struggling with your food choices and just could not resist! DH and I will be alone tonight. We'll have a quiet dinner and then light the luminaries to match all our neighbors around the lake. We usually try to walk around in the stillness and just take in all the light. Silent Night, Holy Night....

Im grateful my 16 y o GD is having her 4th and final knee surgery Friday. The first surgeon used screws that were too LONG and the tip has punched her muscle. All this time. At first her parents thought she was just a hypochondriac (runs in the family). But once the second surgeon saw it, he about had a fit. So, this is to repair the first surgery. Had the other one done Thanksgiving. What a way to spend the holidays, but she's my girl and she's going to be fine.