DH affectionately champions of all my endeavors, not to mention happily receiving and wearing my novice-ly knitted items and reading my blog faithfully (are you reading this, Bear?? 8^). He also goes wine tasting with me (and our friends) and watches DVDs with me whenever I can keep my eyes open at the end of a day.
DD1 is a lovely young woman from whom I always learn something interesting, who has already begun to leave her indelible mark on the world, and whom I admire greatly for her many gifts.
DD2 sets the bar for embracing life and rolling with the punches (is that a bunch of mixed metaphors or what??) as she branches out into the wide world (four metaphors in a row!!).
DD3 never ceases to crack me up, and sometimes even succeeds at making me laugh at myself; paradoxically, she takes her own life seriously enough to be headed for great things, without losing sight of what is most important to her.
Sister Kate will always be my soul-deep friend and the one who most totally "gets" me, flaws and all; she is, happily, also one who knows how to enjoy herself with a good drink on a beach in Hawaii!
I am so grateful for BFF Monica, the go-to person for perspective, humor and belly laughs, free therapy, workplace dishing, and honest hits on what I'm thinking or considering, not to mention someone to split a Coke with at faculty meetings. She has also provided me with a model for mothering without obsessing, something I have never managed!
And then there is BFF Barbara, whose erudite and hilarious emails from Europe keep me hoping she will one day soon be back in the US, where I can monopolize her summers and watch her daughters grow up! What would I do without her frank and forthright way of seeing the world?
My beloved stepmom, Leone, has had miraculous surgery and regained a great deal of the world that Parkinson's took from her. I was fortunate to spend a few days with her in October when she was well on the mend, and she's like another woman! One I remember from before.
I have seen my mother truly happy this year.
I have been able to spend time with my father this year.
My sweetie pie niece Leonie ('Onie) has charmed me and reminded me how fresh the world is when you are little.
Lucky me, I share my life with les chats, all of which entertain, comfort, warm, amuse, and annoy me on a daily basis:
Cleo and Kermit getting circular aboveLeft: Percy in a paper bag
Right: Pippi sees the world differently
I am so grateful for The Locale, our choice for 28 years and probably forever, the One True Paradise (hear that, Girlies? "There's no place like home, there's no place like home" . . . Come home soon! No snow to slog through!).
I am fortunate to have rediscovered knitting and acquiring yarn, the combination of which make me calmer, happier, and more artistically moved than any other hobby has ever done--
Life is good. Happy Thanksgiving.
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