Happy holidays to everyone.

I am in Colorado, at my sons house. I came here on the 15^th of December, and I’m staying til January 10. Since I’m flying Southwest, I am hopeful that 2 more weeks is enough time for them to straighten out the mess that was created by the huge storm, and Southwest’s weird way of scheduling, etc. Whatever. I guess if I can’t get out by the 10^th I’ll just stay at my son’s another day or three.

My grandson has been the highlight of this trip. He’s a little over 11 months old. He can crawl with speed, is working on getting up the stairs, says Da-da, (yells it, actually) and says Ba-ba, which is apparently what he’s calling anyone who isn’t Da-da. Including me, his mother, his sister… He has also learned to clap his hands, which is adorable to watch. He laughs a lot, especiallyif someone plays peek-a-boo with him

Damn, is he cute! His cousin who is 13 months old is here a lot, a beautiful little girl. They have such a good time together (though Lucian is still prone to grab stuff out of her hands at times.) It’s just been so much fun to have kids around at Christmas. The amount of presents under the tree was staggering, mostly because of the kids, but also because there were about 10 adults from the Lucian’s mother’s family here, all with presents for each other. It was, to understate it, quite chaotic. Especially for me because I am getting close to 72, and live alone, in a nice warm place. So the babies, Lucian’s big sister, and all these adults, and the resident dog and cat….I was slightly overwhelmed.

It has been cold here. (Like everywhere else.) The Thurs and Fri before Christmas it was -12 when we got up. And the highs for those 2 days was like +2, or +7….BRRRRRRR. It snowed a bit those 2 days, white powdery snow, that turned very icy very quick. But then the weekend was good, in the 40’s or maybe 50. Tues it was 68! Last night we were supposed to get 3” to 6” of snow, we got over a foot. Now its back down to temperate for this time of year. Crazy weather here.

Christmas night I had a long awesome conversation with Ellena, my 10 yr old granddaughter. She is wise beyond her years. She was showing her mom, dad and me the wooden box I gave her full of art supplies. It is her passion and she is SO talented. As we were talking about all kinds of stuff, she said to me, “Look at this! We started with something fairly small, (the box of art supplies) and it expanded into this big conversation.” Wow. Gotta love that girl. Since Gulfport (where I live in FL) is so full of artists, I told her next time she comes to see me, I want my artist friends to meet her, and her to meet them. They would love her.

I’ve been trying to help clean the house up, just because it needs it. It is not a priority for anyone who lives here, I seem to be the only person bothered by the mess. So I decided to kind of try to turn a blind eye, and let them live the way they want. I’ll pick up the toys and try to keep the kitchen cleaned up, but I tend to wear myself out doing stuff that no one really cares about. Example of the chaos: I brought my laptop here. My son plugged it in to charge it and I didn’t know it, and thought I’d lost it. Yesterday my daughter-in-law found it, 10 days or so after I got here, and luckily just before I actually bought another laptop. Thank God, I didn’t have to spend that money. That’s also why I’ve not written in a while.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate. And hoping everyone has a great New Year’s. Love and light to all.