Did you think my title was catchy? A little further encouragement to not miss a while! So much has happened in my absence. Sandy, I appreciated your sweet and open sharings about Hannah. Thanks for letting us share again in her life in that way. Also, please know I'm praying for you and new baby, that everything will quickly settle back down into "normal" pregnancy.
Tonight, Thad has been waiting for me to begin wrapping presents...but I haven't. So that's that story. Gene is in Detroit with multiple inches of snow and Hayes is spending the night with My then going to breakfast with her. I had a good practice with my little traveling volleyball team. The only problem is we still don't have enough committed players. Should that not miraculously change by thursday, I'm afraid we can't really proceed. Just when we're getting good and bonded. :(
Hillary's visit to Mars Hill was very nice and they have offered her a decent scholarship. We had HOPED for more, but in reality it was a nice offer. She still hasn't decided for sure. The problem is she has to let them know before her Honors Day at Wofford in February.
I have enjoyed having my decorating done since we had our small group Christmas party here Friday night, then Thad and Hayes had about 18-20 folks--including Emily and Jessie-- over for another party Sunday night. [I arrived late from an afternoon wedding, but had helped with cooking/prep before leaving.] Both were very nice. Sandwiched inbetween was dinner at OUtback with Josephs, Huffmans, Carltons, Thompsons, us and My--really her first outing. We, and she, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. However, on Monday I learned that Shirley, Duree and Cori were all VIOLENTLY sick with throwups and Hoppy was in the hospital. Who knows what that was--all are better and Hoppy is home. (They finally agreed with OUR diagnosis that his blood pressure meds wrong since he's lost a fair amount of weight recently.)
Tomorrow Paige and I are shopping for a family with 9 kids in the home (and 2 out!) from a local elementary school, then I have my tennis buddies Christmas lunch. Somehow I've got to prepare something for that. Speaking of preparing food, all the meringue things sound really good, C. Has that truly been the case? The coffee cakes took 6 hours--my feet and back were killing me. But ALMOST the last one needing to be delivered went out tonight. (And I really wrap them loverly if I do say so myself.) I've also made one batch of cracker candy, one new mix with all sorts of stuff coated in white chocolate, and one batch of caramel corn. Gracious, why do we cram a year's worth of baking into 3 weeks??!?
That's the newsy stuff and I'm not feeling alert enough or particularly inspired enough at this time to share deeper, spiritual/philosophical thoughts--tho' I love those and THOROUGHLY enjoyed all the posts along those lines. Hang in with me long enought and I'm sure I'll share something deep somewhere along the way!
Love and good night to all,
Laurie
