New Year's Eve in Whitefish

Came home to a nice table set and dinner prepared by Dolan and his cousins.  Big Mountain was fogged in, so we couldn't see the torchlight parade and the fireworks, alas.  But we have enjoyed the snow and mountains so much.  Last night we had dinner with good friends in Kalispell, and laughed so much at the stories of Wayne working in the Butte mines.  Not that his work was easy or funny, but his way of telling about it sure is!

I haven't been able to ski or ice skate, but I enjoy just being here.  Yesterday afternoon Paul and I snowshoed down to the base lodge, and then back!  It seems that I can still do that, with my brace and  the two snowshoe poles.  Pretty exciting!

I hope everyone has a good 2014.  For me, it has to be better than 2013, after all!

Santa Claus is comin' to town (sings Bruce Springsteen in the background)...

Wrapping some presents...pretty well done, but one last big one to do.  Made cookies today, too.  Definitely feeling the Christmas spirit (and three friends brought treats to my front door!).  However, I am beginning to realize that some things are definitely in the last-time-I-will-do-them category.  I can barely use scissors correctly now, and anything that pushes my right hand (other than typing, fortunately) shows up all the weakness that is taking over.  I am focusing on all the many things I will still be able to do, and not being able to wrap presents is no big deal, really.  Still, it's a little farewell...like not being able to skip, which I thought of today while watching "The Santa Clause" and seeing the elves skip away.  I loved to skip, even in heels.

Tomorrow I head out early to Great Falls (two hours south) to get my new ankle brace.  I have been tripping more lately (and not in the good, 1960's, way!).  I am down to only a few pairs of shoes that I can wear with a brace, and two pairs of boots that I can wear without and still have some support.  Man, giving up my shoes has been really hard...and heels...sigh.

But we have a white Christmas, so who am I to complain?!  Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Baby it's cold outside...

Currently it's -35 degrees Fahrenheit in Havre, Montana.  Outside is eerie...still, quiet, and billowing vapor from all the furnaces and boilers working overtime.  Dolan and I were driving home, and saw a black cat running VERY fast (you could tell it did not want its paws to touch the icy ground), and a lonely tagged dog running across the street.  We were sad for all the animals outside tonight in this weather. 

Dolan said if he ever wins the lottery, he will have a big house, with a big barn to welcome all animals in on nights like this.  First he'll bring in all the deer, then the predators should happily follow!  (He wasn't hoping for carnage; just a way to protect the bobcats and mountain lions!)

Crazy place we call home, eh?

The cold didn't keep folks in today, so the St. Jude's Church bazaar was a success and the lunch tables were full.  I helped at the door taking money for purchases, and bought up all the colored lights at the bazaar's Santa's Attic.  (Imagine my surprise when I plugged them in and they're a veritable light show!  I had Christmas music playing, and they seemed to pulse to the beat!)  It was so nice to see so many people, and the support and love they all showed me was deeply touching.  I will say it over and over, if one has to be very ill, Havre is the place to be, because people wrap their arms and hearts around you.

As we will next weekend when all the churches and the Key Club at Havre High raise funds in various ways for three children with difficult health conditions.  I never ask "why me?" because I see children with cancer or MD or other challenges and I know there is no rhyme or reason to any of this.  It's how we face any of it that is important.  And I will support others in any way I can while I can.

Another goodbye, said too soon

Attending a funeral today for a 61 year old woman.  She taught special ed in the Havre Public Schools for many years, and always presented a smiling face to all.  She will be missed.

Once again, it reminds me we all have only so much time allotted to us, and we should really make the best of it.  While Nelson Mandela set the bar impossibly high for a life well-lived, all of us can make positive steps in our communities.  The legacy of a life well-lived can be simply treating others well, helping children, planting trees, or anything else that brings you out of yourself to make life better for others.

Chrissy made the best of her time here, and her legacy with the children she taught will live long beyond her corporeal self.  Goodbye.

Catching up...

It's been a while, but so much has been going on, it flew by. 

We spent a week in Virginia with my family at Pat and Jerry Warner's lovely home in Churchville.  The weather, funnily enough, was actually a bit colder than Havre's that week.  They even had snow on Wednesday (but it didn't stick).  I guess that's when we really compare Montana weather to Virginia's...today we woke to 8 inches of dry whiteness, and it continued snowing all day.  Beautiful!

Here's a couple of favorite pictures from our VA stay:

Of course, that's me with the white hair...like to pretend it's blonde, but that isn't really realistic when the camera picks it up as white!

What I think of all the time is how wonderful a life I have been given, and how I have no real regrets.  I have a loving family, both nuclear and extended, and Thanksgiving was a perfect time to remember that.

And now we enter the Christmas season with a beautiful snowfall, and I am again so very glad to be alive, and so appreciative of all I have been given in my life.  I may go sooner than I expected, but I won't feel cheated in the least.