Holiday News

We've had a lovely Christmas. We're at Disney. Nora has a fever so I bowed out of the soap flake snow that Celebration sprinkles on its Main Street and Japanese reservations for 10 to take my little warm one home for applesauce and Pink Panther videos.

We left Chicagoland on an arctic morning where we covered the girls with blankets just to get them to the car. The wind had blown twelve inch drifts over the walk we had shoveled the day before but this would not be the worst of it. The day after we left, 400 O'Hare flights were canceled, Randy told me as we sat on our balcony in light humidity, light breeze, light clothes.

There were some rough days before we left - dark mornings when I needed to chant affirmations before rising, picture the tiny but persistent flame inside me. Here, in the sunshine, Randy and I can laugh cause the light in me that sees the light in him is solar powered but his is cooking with gas.

Our first stop, Kansas City, was emotional and complicated, of course, but mostly a big sigh of relief sitting down in that familiar living room with Ruth to hear her election week stories of standing up to the narrow minded Republican biddies at church.

Becky has a new baby, Jamie Ruth, born a few weeks early and right before Becky's finals in her first semester of junior college. But her husband Kevin helped with the three other kids and Becky rallied through, earning two A's and a B. Yeah, Becky! The baby is beautiful.

Niece Maggie has finished her last semester of pre-med and is heading to South Africa! in the spring to work with AIDS patients. So proud.

At the end of the night we pulled out the '80's Sears portrait of the girls with Becky's sister Andrea, preparing for nursing school, and Stephanie, whose wedding in Omaha we attended in October. The picture showcased ungainly teeth and baby fat rolls, but the sweet eyes are the same.