proof positive: yes, virginia (a.k.a. alice!), there is a santa claus! my 10-year-old arrived home saturday evening, blushed and flushed from a trip to missouri over christmas with her dad, her step mom and her yet embryonic (sophie) sister ... and yet, when she sat under the tree to see what santa had done, she very nearly had to be resuscitated. there is magic left in this world, and proof-positive that the holidays come from our heart of hearts, where we find our family ...even if you are 10 years old, and the world has become a giant scary terrorized place where you have one or two "real families" and all kinds of "extended" and "other" relatives, but when it comes right down to it, you are loved to the max and santa comes through and through the mystical ages.

lady bug, lady bug fly away home, before i set my house afire so you can no longer roam: it has become unseasonably warm here. what small amount of snow we had has melted, and the grass is greening up. there is a piggy little squirrel in our front yard, romping around, digging up all his buried treasures, because the yard is wide open to remind him where he stuffed every last nut! and the lady bugs have rejuvinated. there were at least five in the house yesterday, one on the computer monitor, one on the paper towel rack, one on some paperwork, one in the sunroom window and one on my forehead!

best holiday decorating idea: we put santa hats on the blades of the ceiling fan in the sun room. way cool! way whimsical. way cheap because the stores are dumping all their xmas stuff and putting valentines cards out already! and all to perfect for the "family xmas-2003" which does not take place until New Year's Day. Not sure yet, when we are going to celebrate New Year's ... perhaps on Valentine's Day!

making our list, checking it twice: things needed from the store today:

-molasses for the gingerbread men.

-yarn for rag doll hair.

-fiberfill stuffing

-fleece

-jumbo bottle of robitussin as influenza lingers

-a partridge for our pear tree.

my greatest hope: is that all you denners, etc. etc. had a happy holiday. i pulled a shift transcribing on xmas eve and all through xmas day, to which i was treated to many stories of influenza, cough and congestion, overloading food indigestion, cancer rearing up, end-stage everything, family fights about meds, boozey brawls and families unable to let go of those who were dying, refusing DNR orders over Xmas so that their critically ill family members were resuscitated and resurected, held together by pins and needles, and all kinds of drugs, until a better time for dying. the doctors sounded taxed at best. so, it does a body's heart good to know that there were just as many people out there who were at peace and thriving as there were those who struggled and fought off dying.