Song

Every single time I hear this song, I cry. I figured that since I'm crying alot anyway, I might as well cry in a way that makes me feel good at the end. Merry Christmas season to all who celebrate it, and happy blizzard to the rest of us.


"Christmas in the Trenches," written and performed by John McCutcheon

Holiday

Today is the 25th day of December. That means it's my Mom's birthday, the first birthday we are celebrating without her. It is unbelievably hard to do that. I made cookies this morning, cookies that she liked to make for the Christmas carolers who came over here every year to practice before we went out serenading the town. Cranberry-pecan-white-chocolate-chip oatmeal cookies. This year there were no carolers and no Mom, but at least there could be cookies.

Yesterday, in honor of birthday eve, Dad and I cleaned out the garage. It wasn't much of a party, but it felt good to be doing something productive. Then my sister came out from Brooklyn, and we all had dinner and talked about how hard it is to do anything at all. Tonight the three of us and all five of our Paraguayan-Italian friends will have birthday dinner and remember her. This may be the first time the whole families have been together since I graduated from high school. And it won't ever be all nine of us again.

So many things

Blog, a lot has happened since I last wrote on you. I don't have the energy to relate it all in my typical witty fashion, so I will instead just say that

1. Thanksgiving pretty much sucked

2. Visiting LA pretty much rocked

3. Fried potatoes + applesauce = delicious

4. I am currently waiting for a plumber to come explain why our tub is filling up from the drain and how to make it stop


More frequent updates to resume soon, or maybe not until January, since this is a busy time of year.