A Lovely Day

It's a lovely, cold, blue sky day at Swamp River Ridge this morning.  I haven't yet checked what the low was in the wee hours, but it was 4 degrees when I got up so the mercury may have dipped below 0 for the first time.

The first two Christmas cards were waiting yesterday when I picked up the mail.  Christmas.  Yikes.  Who's ready?!  It's my favorite time of year, but I have been ill-prepared these last many years.  Hmmm, maybe if I make THAT my New Year's Resolution - to immediately (yes, in January!) begin preparing for Christmas - I'll have a better handle on it 365 days from today.  Yep, I think I'm gonna do that!


I've been thinking about how to write my Christmas letter this year; how to make it NOT all woe and depressing things.  I'm actually in the mood to write a tongue-in-cheek one as I did a couple of years ago ("we're milking moose for our dairy products, and I've been collecting the down of chickadees to stuff our pillows").  Maybe I'll do that and then, at the very end, give the briefest possible synopsis of what really happened.  But, then, there will be all those people left asking, "Huh?!  What?!  You . . . you're DIVORCED?  And it all happened in this past year?!"  Oh, well.  It will work itself out.  If I do write the "humorous" one, I'll be sure to share it with you.  (Anybody have any great suggestions about how you encapsulate a year defined by a marriage breaking up?  FORTUNATELY, I will be able to wrap it all up positively:  that it has been, ultimately, a good thing for us.  Still, so weird, that.)

After I get the annual letter composed, the next question is . . . do I send it to the ex's family?  There are a couple of people who I won't even question sending it to (his uncle, whom I love, and a cousin who is a regular reader here) . . . but what about people like his brother . . . who has never much loved me?  To be fair, though, I think a lot of that "dislike" has come from his knowledge that the ex was not happy these last couple of years, and he held me accountable for that.  Of course, I didn't know the ex was so unhappy in our marriage, but his brother must not have believed that.  Any advice from you folks who have been divorced?  What do I do in situations like this?  Ahhhh, Life:  nothing constant but change.  ;)

Hmmmm, there's a cat attacking my work bag.  What's in there that could be so interesting?  Ahhh:  a button on the outside.  Must . . . attack . . . !

Well, the day is flitting away, and I need to get a bit of clean up done around here before heading in, a little later than usual in order to combine trips, to drop the dogs off at the groomer's on my way to work.  I was going to have Tucker clipped short again, but the temps are so low right now and they spend a couple of hours in the car each night, waiting for me at work, that I dare not divest him of too much of his wooly warmth.

I'll try to get the photos downloaded today that I didn't get to yesterday.  Can't seem to find my camera-to-computer USB.

Have a GOOD ONE!