2010: New Year, New Hopes, New Blooms!

Happy New Year, everyone! As you can see, we are joined in this greeting by The Amaryllis, which chose yesterday to unfold for this holiday season. Mom Linville's legacy lives on in many ways, but this plant, and its offspring, are one of the more delightful, tangible reminders of her. I imagine many of you who have some of these bulbs have had similar miracles in bloom recently.

Norm and I rang in the New Year at 12:03 this morning on our porch, clanging a cowbell that came with the house, attached to one of the porch lights. We had sipped some sparkling grape and snacked on Scottish shortbread that smelled SO GOOD while it was baking in the oven. Our New Year's Eve Scrabble tournament took place as well. Norm won this year by 2 points: 224 to 222, and that was with getting caught with the Z, so good for him! We have been writing down the scores from each year on a now yellowed piece of paper since 1969, the year my parents gave us the game for Christmas! (They thought a couple of English majors deserved a spelling game!)

As we were doing some correspondence this week, we also took time to rearrange the picture board and update it to reflect many of the events of 2009, as well as showcase some of the pictures that came in Christmas cards. Some of the photos are older because we still like them, or they are the best we have of someone. Those of you who have been to our house know that we have this board on the wall above our kitchen table. We began the tradition in our Ferguson house, back in the 1970s, when it had a small bulletin board on the kitchen wall. We like having the images of places and people we love in a location where we are reminded of them and can think of them each day. Our fervent wish, on this bright, blue, cold (16 degrees!) morning is for health and happiness for everyone we know, for healing for those who have been battling illness, for recovery for those who have lost jobs or confidence, and for progress toward peace and understanding even when the way seems lost. As people in our congregation say to each other every Sunday, may the Peace of Christ be with you! Have a Blessed New Year!