December 23

Martha's incredible refrigerator roll

I'm grateful to be on the nice list of my neighbor, Martha. She makes these incredible rolled cakes with a cream cheese filling and pecans on the outside and I look forward to one every Christmas. Thank you for sharing your wonderful culinary gift, Martha!

December 22

Dueling cameras

I'm grateful for the company of friends on Solstice night.

December 21

Pink fuzzy what?

Very, very, very early this morning, I was wakened by my young daughter, "Mommy, can I snuggle with you?"

I flipped back the comforter to let her in, asking, "What's wrong, sweetie-pie?"

"I had a bad dream about ghosts," she answered as she spooned her body against mine.

When I was child, I used to have nightmares that drove me to my mother's bed and I remember vividly how brave I had to be to get up the stairs to her bedroom. I wondered if Ruthie's ghosts haunted our stairwell the same way snakes had haunted mine.

I'm grateful my mom never told me to go back to my own bed. She always pulled the covers back for me and always soothed those snakes away. Although it would make sense that this would be picture of my mom, I had to make do with illustrating the warm fuzzies she gave, and still gives, to me (and, yes, my warm fuzzies are pink).

December 20

Tink escapes

I'm grateful to be finished with the work day and following Tink's lead in escaping outta here. Maybe I'll get some shopping done finally.

December 19

Garland on the tree

I'm grateful I managed to get the tree up this past weekend. Even if I haven't even started my shopping, at least I've done something Christmas-y.

December 18

Stupid, not SMART phone

I'm grateful I found my phone just in time to have missed eight, count 'em, eight phone calls from work people.

At least I found it before the deadline the calls were so desperately trying to alert me to. (And as an aside to Verizon, I'd consider it a much more "smart" phone if I could turn it into a beat-the-drums-very-loudly sound mode just by dialing a special phone number)

December 17

The kids' Christmas Pageant

I'm grateful that this year I was able to be an audience member at the Christmas Pageant instead of the accompanist. The view was marvelous and the kids did an outstanding job.