The past weeks have been busy with sweet family moments and a few hectic days at work....and then of course snow.

The saga of Christmas turned out okay after all. Late purchases and real delays in shipping (did you know that two day shipping is really four business days? must be new, new math.)

In any case, Katie's art desk and chair arrive before Christmas but in a box less than three inches thick. Hmmm, indicates a bit more than "some" assembly required. Les and I stay up til 0100 with the joys of Allen wrenches and wonderful "directions" in three languages but that you cannot understand.

Katie wakes up first but comes into our room to wait patiently for us to wake up. (more patience than I had as a kid). We go into the den and she walks right by her desk and chair to start her "job" of giving out packages. Les and I are standing by it clearing our throats loudly like we have some new plague til she gets it.

Christie gets a voice activated, AI Parrot. It quickly proves to be VERY annoying. She also gets a voice activated recorder and a diary for poetry and lyrics to help with her love of writing songs.

Ice skating lessons, sweaters, robes, books and DVDs round out their gifts and off we go to Les's parents. We have made scalloped potatoes and the 20YC "carrotgasm" dish to bring.

It is wonderful to have them here in the same city. Our daughters are so fortunate to know them especially as my parents died when they were so young. Les's Mom has been ill. It is hard to honor her privacy and still prepare our children for how ill she is. I realize again and so sharply how much I really admire and love her....

So back to work for three terribly long days precepting a new nurse. She is bright and funny and easy to teach but 0700-2000 x 3 can make Ann a grumpy girl.

Home for New Years. Les is a dream and cooks 90% of the time so the girls and I decide we will treat him to the holiday. Les has to work on NYeve (a surprise for a state government guy) so Kate goes to the grocer with me. We make a beef roulade filled with three layers (carrot, wild mushrooms and braised spinach), salad and wild rice then the girls made a mountain of vanilla meringues with little sprigs of rosemary for trees covered in powdered sugar snow...forshadowing of the days to come.

We eat by candlelight and serve sparkling grape juice with the dessert. Trying to do the right thing but as Christie says, "Mom, this stuff BITES! I mean, It has a bite!" (next time our kids get the real thing).

NYDay is shrimp and grits for brunch, DVDs with the family and then hoppin john, my first homemade collards and chicken for supper. Somehow it doesn't feel quite as good to keep traditions alive when one daugher is calling it "Poppin John" and the other can't get past it being a bean.

Back to work with the weather turning to a real winter. The hospital invokes our emergency weather plan at 1000. (no big surprise as we had predictions of 6-8 inches snow for a couple days). However, at least half our staff seems to have been caught off guard with limited ability to cope after the third snowflake...

Half the management team went to see Carolina in FLA at the Outback bowl so I stay til 2030 to make sure the drama queens came through. Good Lord sometimes I think they should have been accountants!

Drive home over rutted snow but with little traffic and realize how beautiful our snow is because we rarely see it but how dangerous it is because we rarely see it.

I stand at the window and watch the three people I love most throwing snowballs and making snow forts. I fix hot cocoa and help peel off wet layers and feel like June Cleaver. I love that feeling.

Later my daughter Kate asks me why boys can't honor what you say to them.... Before I make the wrong, stereotypical response I ask for more specifics. Find she has the expectation that a neighborhood full of boys bent on the snowball fight of a lifetime cannot honor one of the three girls in the neighborhood wanting to do snow angels. To heck with women's lib. Reality is Reality.

Knew our decision not to go to 12th Night was the right one. Family time and work responsibility. So sorry I missed what will be some of the premier moments in this reign: Colin's Knighting, Theo's Pearl, Roland's GOA, Sorcha and Andrew's Pearls, Pavla's Dolphin, Elisabeth and Fin's QOCs and Gwen's Pel.

WOW, I would have cried and cried and hurt my wrist with applause.....