New Year

I came back from California just in time to turn around and head up to Grant Creek for the holiday weekend. I love being at the cabin for the new year. It's peaceful and cozy and I can go to bed at 10:30 and not feel like a party pooper! I will readily admit that my party days are long over. (And I don't miss them, either.) I worked on my 4 x 4 fatbook pages for the ArtFest swap and also on the ATCs for the ArtFest ATC book that Bee hosts each year. I have to get them both done and sent off my February 1st, so the imputess is certainly there!

We had snow at the cabin. Not a lot, not enough to even make us stay put, but snow. For once I could really enjoy it, and I did. It was so pretty falling down in huge, fluffy flakes but so very wet that I knew that the first car to pass over the road would cause it all to melt away---which it did. I made soup and baked bread, watched movies, worked on my art swaps and had a lazy, lovely New Year holiday weekend.....

.....and then last Friday I turned around and went back to the cabin and did it all over again! More snow, too, but not the kind that lasts.

I leave for San Diego very early on Sunday morning and will be away for two weeks. I am heading south to be there for my daughter as she is to be delivering her new baby, a boy. I will take care of the "big" sister (who is two) while Mom is in the hospital. Chris will be with Annie for most of her hospital stay. Alex and I will hold down the fort. I am sure there will be lots of coloring, trips to the park, Play Doh and books to be read. I am really looking forward to my trip to welcome the first grandson, but I suspect that I'll be getting little sleep for the next few weeks! Well, what's a grandma for?

Jen and I saw this balloon one day just before Christmas while we were out shopping. We chased the balloon all over the place, trying to find a good spot for photo or two. Finally we roared into a drug store parking lot that had a great view of the balloon with the moon in the background. I was pleased that while we were snapping away a big, black pick up truck roared into the lot, came screeching up to were we were parked, slammed into a parkng slot and the door flew open and another photographer leaped out to take his own shots

I was lucky enough to get one of LK Ludwig's Snow Jollies. I had LK send it to San Diego so I could enjoy it during the Christmas holiday while I was down there. We all enjoyed it! My little jolly has the sweetest expression and personality. I put her (It? Him?) in the branches of Annie's tree for this portrait.

The biggest personal happening in this new year is my decision that the 2008 season will be my last on the board of the art festival. Once I get through June, I will be resigning my position on the board, with great regret, to have more time to be able to help Kellie with the forthcoming twins. I know that she will need lots of help next year, both with the new additions and with Emma, and I think I need to be there for them all. I will have given the festival three years and for now, anyway, that's going to have to be enough. Perhaps I'll go back in a few years when the twins are older and life more settled. (Is life ever settled? Would I want it to be?)