Ah, the ways we bring in the New Year! Four of us went to church, two fell asleep, one tried to fall asleep (that would have been me), three stayed awake, and two celebrated the new year by riding quads across the fields in the dark. Bailey left church shortly after midnight and made a snow angel. Beth, Mark and Sue prayed in the new year. We all had our reasons. We all had our special memories of 2009.
New Year's Day: I woke at 9:30 to you climbing back into bed. I recognize now that I am frequently awakened this way. You have your crazy 5 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. period of wakefulness, then you come back to bed. I had so much trouble getting to sleep last night that I was successfully able to ignore sunrise with a pillow over my head. New Year's Day brought us lots of snow. It started subtly then rose to a great crescendo about noon. We were worried that Lisa and her family wouldn't come up for the party at Luci and Lee's because of the weather. But they showed up in her friend's four-wheel-drive truck. She had spent most of the night in the ER with her father, who had been unable to pass urine. The hospital had sent him home with a catheter and some antibiotics and Lisa had gotten four good hours of sleep. We were so glad they came! They met us here at the house first, then we all drove over to the party. Luci and Lee's driveway is at least a quarter mile long. When we approached it, we saw that Sue and the kids had been unable to get up it in the Odyssey. So they all piled into the back of Mike's truck. We all had a great time. The food was delicious and the people so warm and welcoming.
We played the best game. We always seem to play this game when we're outside. We got into a snowball fight, and then we got on the quads and continued. It was fun. Starting by just throwing snowballs at each other, then throwing them at the people driving by on the quads, then jumping on the quads, armed with mountains of snowballs, two people on each quad, driving, waiting, aiming, throwing, laughing, hitting the right person, hitting the wrong person, driving off, circling back, lying in wait.....And each time, each person was someone I loved and who loved me back, someone who loved you, someone united to us by blood, marriage or friendship. I remember once reaching down to make a snowball and thinking, "I am so happy now. I am with people who I love, who love me, who I accept and do not judge and who do the same in return. We are having a great time. This is my family, and I am happy when I am with them." Later there were fireworks in the early darkness. It was a good show. Luci and Lee were excellent hosts, so generous, so welcoming. Lisa and her family had a good time and I could tell you were really, really happy they had made the trip. Good people, good times. We can't ask for too much more.
In the evening I helped Sue and Chris a little as they packed to leave in the morning. I told them how I had changed my mind about retiring, saying I didn't want my entire life to change all at once, that if you were gone, then soon Dad would be gone, and finally I would be retired, and I didn't want that to all happen at the same time. Sue said she and Mike had already had this conversation. It always ends with me moving back up to Northern California when they talk. My mind frequently goes there too. We talked about me allowing myself to rent up there without cutting my ties in Los Angeles, without me selling my house, just renting.
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