When I got up this morning and answered Dick's call to come look at my blog quickly, I must say I was totally amazed, humbled and more than a bit intimidated to see how many of Sue's followers had visited my first ever post on my so very new blog. At first I wasn't sure whether I was mad or glad that Sue had made me the subject of her post this morning.

Strangely, I feel that I almost know some of you because I always read Sue's blog the first thing when I get on the computer (usually mid day, because Dick, my sweeheart husband, always has the mornings in the office) and I always read all of the comments. You are all so loyal to my talented daughter and I can understand that, being pretty loyal to her myself. I must say again though that I was totally awed by the response I received by that first pitiful offering. Let me say that I will try to do better, but don't expect a daily post because I guess I just don't have that much to write about. My days are pretty hum drum.........sometimes sleeping in, but never getting up much before 8:00 a.m. When I do roll myself out of bed (literally) I stumble into the living room, after getting dressed, brushing my teeth etc., and start on my puzzles. I do two crosswords, one criptoquick and a sudoku every day. That seems to get my mind to working and hopefully helps to keep some of the brain cells intact. Before I know it, it is time to do a little housework and then lunch. I get on the computer in the afternoon, while Dick is taking his nap or doing errands, and when finished with that, I read the rest of the paper and anything else that is available, except for my kindle, which I try to save for evening. I am an avid reader and thanks to Sue, I have untold books to read since she gave me my kindle for Mother's Day. She did it in her name so that when I got it, I had over a hundred books to read. Since we have much the same taste in books, I have only read a couple that I wasn't too thrilled with. I have read 56 of them since I got it, and I still have over a hundred to read. That tells you that she buys them faster than I can read them. Oh, to be able to read as fast as Sue does. I consider myself a pretty fast reader, but I will never catch up with that gal. You may notice that I have a propensity to ramble and I can tell you right now that I refuse to go back and edit. So be it.

We have been a bit lazy about taking our Christmas decorations down. Our tree is artificial, so I feel I don't have to hurry. Maybe I just like postponing the end of the season as long as possible. I do love the way my living room/dining room looks after putting about sixty or seventy Santa Clauses around. I love them and we used to buy a new one every year (and maybe a few extra) until there just isn't any place to put more. Darn it, I hate it when space runs out, be it in my rooms or on my walls. I suppose one of these days, Dick will get the idea that it is time for Christmas to be over and we'll get busy on that. Right now, we are still a little worn out from travelling to our oldest daughter, Nancy's , for Christmas Eve and part of Christmas Day, then racing home to start preparing for our Seventh Annual New York New Years Eve Party. That is the time we use to do our main yearly deep cleaning of the whole house........only a week to do it and set up for the party. I don't mind it, except for the china cabinet, which drives me a little mad before I have finally washed and polished every bit of bone china, crystal etc. Still, the end result looks great and we open up the whole house for the party. Mostly though, we are contained in the living room, dining room and a few in the kitchen. This year we set up for 25, but one couple was sick, so we ended up with 23. Sue suggested that I tell you a little bit about this event so here goes:

Fortunately, we don't have to prepare all the food as it is pot luck. No problem with that as we all bring the same thing each year. If someone gets sick, I usually prepare what that couple is supposed to bring so that we won't have a change in menu. Crazy, yes? Still, if one thing wasn't there, I'm sure we would all miss it. I always make my famous choco brownie cake with the fudge icing and we provide the ice cream, bread or rolls, and the Martinelli's sparkling apple cider(because no one in our group drinks alcohol). We eat dinner promptly at six. Everyone comes about ten minutes early so our kitchen is a mass of women putting their dishes out so it will be ready to go at the appointed time. This is not too bad, even though my kitchen is pretty small, because everyone knows just where their dish goes. After dinner and dessert, which ends at 7:30, everyone helps to take all the card tables down and then we start our circle time. As you might know, this comes from Sue. We, as a family, have circle time every time we go to her house for Christmas or Thanksgiving. Basically, a question is asked which everyone has to answer, and it does get pretty funny at times. (Sue's circle times are more spiritual) This years question was, "What is the naughtiest thing you ever did as a kid." Let me tell you, the questions are always fun and it gives us all a chance to learn more about our close friends. This last statement reminds me that I forgot to tell you that we have a very close circle of friends (twelve couples) who are in our age group, that we hang out with socially, although not all at one time. Getting us all together happens only once a year and we all look forward to that. None of our friends want to ever miss this party and the only time they do is if they are sick. At the stroke of 9:00 p.m. we toast in the New Years, having watched the count down in Times Square on the T.V. Then everyone helps take down chairs and tables, a couple of guys help Dick move the furniture we have had to make way for card tables back in from the garage and by (9:20) everyone has gone home. Needless to say, a fun time was had by all.

Wow! This is getting so long. I can assure you, this will be my longest post, although once I get going, it is sometimes hard for me to stop. But all things have to end, right? Notice I did not say all GOOD things, because I am not too sure this is good. But, my intentions were, be certain of that. 'Til the next time............. .