I couldn't resist this one last post today. The glorious sunsets here always mellow me out, touch me deeply in a spiritual way, and make me feel so grateful for all we have been given. Abundance, the Lord's incredible abundance, showing itself to us again today in a spectacular way. Thanks to Christine Kane I no longer make resolutions for the New Year but instead choose a word to focus on for the year. Last year abundance was my word. It helped me relax through all the renovation financial issues at the end of the project as well as the troubling economic downturn, keeping my attention on what abundance there was instead of what was missing (i.e. cash!) And lo and behold our appraisal came in where we needed it and we will once again even have financial abundance. The sunset this evening locked in the word abundance for me again in 2009. May you all experience similar abundance. Happy New Year!!

Christmas!

Christmas just sort of snuck up on us this year. Between the power outage, the upper respiratory ailment, the two feet of snow, and the trips up and down to New York City for work I barely had time to decorate. We never did get a tree. And with the economy, it was a lean year on the gift front. But we did spend Christmas Eve and part of Christmas Day up in Westford with my sisters and their families. And the day after Christmas we hosted the entree portion of our First Annual Fowler Laker Road progressive dinner. Peggy and Sarah hosted us for yummy appetizers, Loretta and Paul had us all for a divine salad, David made a spectacular Pork Crown Roast with my homemade applesauce and sides everyone contributed and Tovah and Alan outdid themselves hosting us for 14 different desserts. Eric and Alex brought wine to complement all the courses. None of us has felt this full in a long long time. It was deemed a success and we will definitely be making it an annual tradition.

Blizzard December 2008

We've truly arrived! This year, David has joined the ranks of the locals helping neighbors out after blizzards. Here you see him merrily trucking along the road on his John Deere to plow people out. I've never seen him so happy - except maybe when he was helping neighbors clear their driveways of fallen trees with his trusty chainsaw.

Yesterday we invested in a generator of our own so that we will be self sufficient in case of another extended power outage. This probably means we will not have a power outage for years - similar to what happens when you bring the umbrella and it never rains - but we still felt it was a great "piece of mind" investment. I will be sad not to have a concrete reason to go stay at the Mount Merino Manor again but we maybe we will book a weekend for our anniversary sometime just for the fun of it.

The winter has just been gorgeous around here! I couldn't resist taking more photos of the icicles that decorated the front of our home ... or the squirrel who has figured out how to get to the suet despite all our attempts to block him from it. One of our neighbors got a Red Rider double barrel beebee gun. Another has been greasing the pole with vaseline. And still another is using metal slinkies to slow their progress up the pole. David is considering getting a paint ball gun so we can all at least recognize repeat offenders. The hunter among us, well he's the only one effectively really doing anything to reduce the squirrel population.