December

We had the first snow of the season the other night.  Big fat wet flakes.  Very pretty coming down, and a powder sugar dusting on the trees and hills across the river when I got off work the next morning.  Now it is cold and windy, with winter finally on its way. 

I read my Christmas book for this year.  It is called The Boat of Dreams, by Richard Preston.  It is a very heart warming story about hope and love and a little magic for Christmas.  It was written for a life long friend of the author, who was dying of breast cancer several years ago.  It won't make you laugh out loud, like the Dave Barry book about Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog, but is a great read.  (Richard Preston also wrote, among other things, The Hot Zone, NOT a Christmas book, but an interesting account that you might want to read some other time.)

The weekend after Thanksgiving, I had a great time with Hayden and Rachel.  One day we went bowling and to the new movie "Planet 51", and another day I took Hayden ice skating.  He is just learning to ice skate, so I am not sure he enjoys it as much as I do, but I am hoping if he will persevere he will get to the point where he enjoys it. I think he just needs to overcome the fear of "letting go" (don't we all!).  Learning to skate in a rink, with a railing, is not the same as Oak Lake!

Now I am trying to dig in to my winter projects and have cut the material for the first of the four boat cushions I am recovering.  That and finishing up my meager preparations for Christmas.  Mike will be here on the 15th and then we will fly to California on the 17th to spend Christmas visiting his kids. 

A really cool thing I got introduced to last week is playing Scrabble in real time, on FaceBook.  Great fun to be able to play "that silly game", as Mike calls it, with my friend Celeste in Florida while sitting in my own living room. 

On a parting sad note though, I was sorry to see that both Nebraska and Florida lost their football games this past Saturday!  Florida got soundly beaten by a team with better plays, but Nebraska, to look at the score, was barely overcome.