Is It Really January 2012?

Thanks to my friend, Walter, in Seattle, I have been "nudged" into getting back into this blog. Not sure where the time has gone but it's 2012 already. Winter here in NM is very dry, very few snow storms but lots of sun and our proverbial blue skies!

We hosted a group of friends for Thanksgiving and I cooked the turkey in the new oven. Worked so nicely. And it's so great to have a big refrigerator to store all the food. Dinner ended up to be sort of potluck, with all the regular Thanksgiving foods.....and cheesecake plus pumpkin pie for desert. Ojai and Oreily and Levi were outside all day since it was about 75 degrees. They ran and played and then every once in awhile would come back onto the porch and rest. From all reports, all creatures present had a good time.

Linda and David - 1954

David came to stay with us for a week or so during the Christmas holidays. What a joy for us to have him here. He and Gene managed to get to Whittington one day to shoot paper targets...they had fun. And we did have snow so we had a white Christmas....something we Minnesotans by birth enjoyed. I wrote a cookbook for David and his sons for Christmas..included many of our mother's recipes and a few of my own and our friends. Found a few mistakes after it was printed but they can now say they have the first printing!

Oreily, Ojai and Levi at Thanksgiving

Gene and I are getting all of Reily's paperwork ready to send off to CCI. She will be going back to California in February and saying goodbye to her puppy home. It will be one of the hardest things we've ever had to do....but it's what we knew was coming  - seems like just yesterday she arrived at the Albuquerque airport with her sister, Ojai...all 14 lbs of her. They are gorgeous dogs and we just hope and pray that they will graduate from advanced training and become assistance dogs. It'll be quiet around here and lonely without her. Levi will have to adjust to being an only dog again.

I'm heading back to Russia in May with the Impact Team from First Pres in Bellevue....my 3rd trip over there. Nancy and I will be roomies again and if we can manage it, we'd like to spend a few extra days at the end of the trip and head to Finland to see my relatives.

So life goes on.....always an adventure. Music, quilting and work keep me busy. We're waiting "patiently" for the plumber to come and hook up the dishwasher and install a new faucet and sink also. Manana!!