Dear Reader

    Christmas is finally at its end. We have spent this past weekend cleaning up and packing away the christmas things we had collected over the years, packing them away in storage until their return next Thanksgiving. By then we will be ready for them again. Doing the clean up from Christmas is one of the most despised events to look forward to in the New Year. Though I am tired of looking at the decorations that invaded the living room for the last month, I mourn the thought that I am going to have to pack this all up.

    It takes so much more time to pack than upack.

    We have had a relatively good New Year. Unforntunately Keri and the boys couldn't make it up and have put off their trip until the end of Feb. beginning of March. The good part about this is, she will be here for our birthday (I was born on her eleventh birthday). We haven't celebrated our birhtday together in many years, so this will be a nice change.

   Time for me to depart. In the words of Thomas Tusser, "At Christmas play and make good cheer, for Christmas comes but once a year." 

Sincerely,

Mary-Ann