Time Flies

How nearly a week has passed since my last post amazes me. In fact, although I write down the date in my sales book each time I'm out the fact that Christmas was only days away didn't hit me until yesterday. It seems as if baking cookies may be out the window this year, which with no sweet young things around the house to enjoy them, is probably just fine. I do love my gingerbread men though.

The Christmas cards are trickling in, several a day. It ended up taking me two afternoons to finish mine.

One card that arrived last week made me very curious about what was going on with a family we'd known when we were in our late twenties. They moved from Orlando many years ago, but always kept in touch at least once a year. This years' card was only from the wife prompting me to wonder if the man had died (although he was still fairly young) without us knowing. Last evening while at Target, in the toy department, we ran into a couple we hadn't seen in years. I mentioned the couple and sadly discovered that the man had an affair and they were divorced. Now, obviously this is pretty common these days, but still I was surprised, and saddened. The man in question was a pastor at our church who had quite an influence on us as young parents. The story is that he's now selling cars. I guess once a salesman, always a salesman. Before he sold Jesus, now he's selling another kind of dream. It's a good thing Bill or Dave don't read this blog, or we'd never hear the end of the "Christians are hypocrites" debate.

Now that I'm doing two markets a week the time just flies. Between the house, volunteering, selling, ordering, signing prints, banking, and making web albums for customers, I can hardly find time for any fun. Worse yet, taking photographs as much as I'd like has been a challenge. Last week I sold 36 prints of various sizes. That may not sound like a lot but if someone had told me last year at this time that I would be selling that much I'd have never believed them. The truth is that I'm delighted, just busy.

On Friday I finally decided to just go to the movies; am I glad I did. I saw Slumdog Millionaire and I can't praise it enough. Quite simply it has all the elements that make for a great movie going experience. Here's the trailer: Sumdog Millionaire
I hope you have time to view it and experience a little of the wonder. I can remember when "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" first arrived on the scene. You well know my television watching habits, so you know I made a special effort to see what all the fuss was about. I remember calling Matt, commenting on all the special effects, and how fun it was. They've used all that flash and dash brilliantly!

On Saturday night we went out to "enjoy" the annual golf cart Christmas parade at Bruce's moms neighborhood. Some of the carts were very festive, although I believe last years was a bit better. We had some snacks after the parade, and spent the evening with some very old, and interesting women. One of them is 89 and SO robust. She still does most of her yard work, which she credits with keeping her going. Now we think we have some pretty big family gatherings, but they don't hold a candle to hers. She is one of SEVENTEEN children. Several of her older siblings have died, but there are still plenty more! Apparently they have two family reunions a year; the one in Michigan draws 150 people, obviously spanning several generations.

Another woman was a youngster at 86. She brought Christmas stocking hats to share, and had I known how much it would have cheered her, I might have even put one on myself. Actually Bruce goes crazy when he sees perfectly sane adults sporting them as if they were normal headgear. She also had quite a history to share. I asked them about what they thought about the economy. It seemed to be the consensus that it is pretty bad, and that young people don't seem to know how to work. It's something I always ask older people because they naturally have more of a sense of history.

I still have wrapping to do, an order to pickup and deliver, and of course today is museum day, so I must get myself ready for that.

I know you are dying to know how our little Baxter is--back to his normal self--he's even lost about 1/2 pound!

Finally, I'm sad because it is so cold in Chicago for Jonathan and Alissa, and Matt has been fighting a cold/flu for days. Once a mother, always so.

----------------
Listening to: Mary Chapin Carpenter - Children, Go Where I Send Thee
via FoxyTunes