Tis the Season to be…merry jolly doggie foodie happy sleepy quiet reflective hopeful worried…whatever you wish

5PM. Christmas Day eve. What a nice family…to which I am privileged to belong.  And how fortunate we are…those of us safe and with family and friends. My sense of unease is always present these days but I guess for this evening I’ll just let it lie untended, unacknowledged. The last 24 hours has been spent with my son, his wife and kids, my bro and sister-in-law, and with my daughter-in-law Michele’s extended family. So much kindness, good will, connectedness—all nurtured by Frank or Bing ‘Dreaming of a White Christmas’ and twinkling lights and pretty presents and dogs chasing and cakes baking  and new wool socks.

5AM. Boxing Day in the UK. Just the plain old 26th here. A day off for many. I’ll make a few final Christmas calls. Then…I slept 10 hours last night, resting up in preparation for my favorite holiday—New Year’s—a celebration of all my obsessions, quirks, good intentions, last chances, me-ness.

All week I will dream, plan, make lists and lists and lists, pour over maps, itemize reading resolutions, organize writing blogging reading thinking planning corners—this computer here, that laptop over there, history books get these shelves, detective novels those, a whole African village up top.

On New Year’s eve and New Year’s Day morning, I study the results and swear on my Daytimer I will follow every plan created, achieve every goal so earnestly made, climb every mountain…whoops, getting a little carried away from all that sleep.

I’ll post a few photo albums today of Christmas 2016: My version of a Christmas card I suppose. Starting with the best…Luna and Buddy getting acquainted. Luna is Patricia’s Australian shepherd/husky beauty and Buddy is Robert and Marsha’s sweet and cuddly (yes) pit bull mix, ‘second-cousins-once-removed from different mothers’ or something like that.