Close to a New Year ... so close.

I SUPPOSE we never grow too old to imagine that that first day of the new year holds the possibility of becoming the start of something grand, bright and totally different.
Different? Grand? Bright? Why not?!
We finally had our Christmas gathering with all the grandchildren - but one - and most of our kids. A houseful of the sounds of laughter and crinkling wrapping paper being undone and the smell of lots of good food. Oh! And the tastes of good food!
Pumpkin pie, ham, yams, stuffing, brussel sprouts, cornbread, pea salad and curried coleslaw, apple cobbler: Scales, get thee behind me!
Here are my two boys and my daughter-in-law gathered around the coffee table playing a new card game. She got to play cribbage with the Mister, but didn't win this time. (Best two out of three?) And here I am with my Aunt Dot, who I hadn't seen in way too long. (I don't look too shy here, do I, Candace?)
Sunday was also the last night of Hanukkah, so we got to enjoy the brightness of those candles, too.
It was good to be with family and friends and see most of the white stuff in the yard slowly giving way to the green grass, and even the mud didn't look too bad.
I must give thanks to Christy Sobolewski at Average American Girl for fixing my blog so it loads faster. I am grateful for her help and hope I can soon pay her kindness forward. Christy belongs to the SoulJournal group I joined some time ago and she is a Web designer and smarty-pants (thank goodness!). Check out her blog and see what she's been doing with her journal pages.
I don't have too much time to spend tonight, but I know how boring it is to check in with people and find they haven't been posting anything new. My cousin, John, has been writing poetry again. Maybe there will be some of that posted soon.
Hopefully this will catch you up with what is going on in Oregon and reassure those who might have been worried about me and my holiday doldrums - femminismo