dual personalities

We had a wonderful Christmas, full of (slightly hysterical) laughter and good cheer (lots and lots of “cheer”)

birthday flowers (I bought myself)

and now we are enjoying our presents,

a bad photo of my husband’s 18th century Kirby print

and catching up on our reading.

I’m already deeply immersed in my fab cousin Ulysses  (thank you dual personality!) along with two beautiful Assyrian books straight from the Louvre (yes, they’re in French), plus a huge, 10-books-in-one compendium of a fantasy series that I wanted to reread. There is plenty of music, too, but I’ll save it for another post.

All is not wine and bon bons, however. I’ve put the boys to work cleaning their rooms.

High School finally gets what it deserves and goes into the recycling bin!

It’s so satisfying! Please note: youngest son was also working in his room, but he is reclusive and doesn’t allow photography.

Nor have the old folk been let off the hook. The husband has been madly grading and this morning I’m off to church to do session-y things. Outside it’s still winter-ice-land, but travel is fine.

icy maze of branches

Have a great weekend and stay safe!

The week is zooming by, so take a moment and look around. Take a deep breath. It’s all good, right?

Well, daughters #1 and 2 have arrived safe and sound back in our flyover state for the holidays. We will be in and out this week as you can imagine.

Happy December 23!

or, if we want to be highbrow, “a cold coming they had of it”. This year Christmas has involved travel for all three boys, starting with the youngest, whom I collected from college yesterday during the first phase of a three day period of very bad weather. Driving was an adventure mostly involving slush, fog, sleet, and freezing rain.

— approximately nine hours of excitement, especially after a piece broke off the driver’s side windshield wiper. We even had a deer bolt across the road in front of us. I’m getting anxiety chest pains just thinking about it.But we have my birthday CDs (gifts from sons 2 and 3) to help us focus: the Civil Wars:

and James Blunt’s new CD, which Youtube won’t let me embed, but you can find there if you’re interested. They’re both good and I recommend them highly!

After we got home I took my wine into the family room and binged on “Heart of Dixie”.  Can you blame me?

Relaxing, thank you!

You might wonder why I did not make my DH do this trip. The truth is I was saving the best for him. Today our weather forecast has been upgraded (or downgraded, depending how you look at it). The National weather service has this to say:

Winter Weather Advisory is cancelled.

The National Weather Service in Burlington has issued an Ice Storm Warning, which is in effect from 7 am this morning to 7 pm EST Sunday. The Winter Weather Advisory has been cancelled. The Winter Storm Watch is no longer in effect.

I can hear the ice hitting our windows even as I type this. Our eldest son is due into Syracuse tonight by train at about 9, which in theory would mean a 5 hour round trip in the car. Unless the weather service is wrong (and I fervently hope they are), it looks like a hotel stay of at least one night for the boy and (possibly) his father. Seriously, we don’t want them to end up like this:

Keep your fingers crossed!

Meanwhile, boy #2 is in Paris living it up doing research for his mother.

Look, mom, no feet!

See…here he is in the Louvre with one of the guardian figures from Sargon’s palace at Dur-Sharrukin. Pretty cool, eh? And with any luck, all this bad weather will be done before we have to pick him up at the airport in Montreal.

Here’s a nice prayer from the 1929 Scottish Book of Common Prayer:

ALMIGHTY Father, who art present in thy power in every place: Give ear in thy loving-kindness to the supplications which we offer unto thee on behalf of our brethren and friends now absent from us; may thy mighty hand shield and protect them from all evil; may thy Holy Spirit guide them in the right way and bless their going out and their coming in; and grant that, being united by our fellowship with thee, we may all at the last be gathered in the home which is above; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Stay safe all you travelers!