Boxing Day

Made it through Christmas and the first anniversary of my mother's death, and it's nice to know it will never be "the first Christmas" again.

We hosted Christmas Eve here for the first time with Maxim and Miles, my aunt and uncle, cousin Pete and his fiance Kari, my dad, and our friend Kelly. Patrick and I made great lefse, plus turkey, meatballs, etc., and I think everyone had a good time. We even got to have luminaria! Yesterday, after stockings and clean-up (and after Geronimo ate ALL EIGHT greenies in his stocking!) we went to the cemetery, then to Chris and Katharine's for chili and a movie, effectively avoiding the rest of the holiday. Beatrix did her best to distract me with her new trick of burrowing under the top of my right rib.

So we made it, and now back to real life...

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