@parus

I'm with you on the Christmas card thing. I don't like e-cards, even though that's all we get from some. I suppose it's inevitable that it will be the norm soon enough. I write a letter about the highlights of our year and send copies to an increasingly shorter list of family and friends. But if we don't receive a card from someone, they're off the list. I write the letter so it can be interesting to friends who probably aren't all that interested in the minutiae of our granddaughters' lives.

I sat in a corner of the family room at my in-laws' home today half listening to the swirl of conversation and activity, drinking coffee. My wife's family is overwhelming. But I survived, and have made it back to our daughter's, and am playing catch up with the Mayo Connect discussions.

Next comes Christmas! I'm going to put up more lights outside this year, as our daughter is coming for a week. I only put up a couple of lights last year- fewer every year. I just haven't felt like using the little energy I have doing something that only my wife and I would see. Living out in the country, no one else would see the decorations. I used to compete with the neighbors where we lived last, and strung lights on the fences, the porch rails, the roofline and even the trees and bushes. Makes me tired just thinking of it.

I should write to a few others, so I must say goodnight.

Jim