Christmas' Aftermath

Christmas is over and done with for another year. It was low key but very pleasant and family centered, and that's what is important to me about Christmas. We spent some special time with Eric, Colleen, Sheryl, Lucas and Ian at their house; Marty came down from Indy for a few days, which is always a treat; phone calls and blog pictures shared with Danielle and Phil, Naomi and Leah kept us as close as we could get to them, even though they're all the way out in the snow in the Pacific Northwest; we wished Miki and Kevin "safe trip" as they left on a car trip to New York to spend time with Kevin's mom.

Mike is taking care of their houses and cats in Bloomington while they're gone, so I plan to catch up with year-end accounting for the golf course, put Christmas decorations away (few though they were!), and write thank you notes. It has also become necessary for a new fitness regimen to begin after way too much eating of all the wrong stuff over the holidays. Why is it so easy to gain weight and so slow taking it off? No fair.

Marty and I are winding up a big project we undertook this winter involving over a thousand family pictures scanned and organized. Actually, it's the kind of project that will never really be finished as long as we continue to take pictures that we feel need to be online in the Bird Family Albums. Marty and I agree that it was a struggle for us to determine exactly how to separate groups of pictures (by year? by person? by event? by location?) because each of us is obsessed with organization of any kind... making it too detailed, too critical and too difficult... but we did finally make some decisions that made sense (Picasa to the rescue!). When it is all finalized, I will post the URL for public viewing.

What will the New Year bring? No one really knows, but I have sensed an atmosphere of anticipation and hope. Perhaps there will be a resurgence of volunteerism, or at least increased interest in becoming involved in helping our world become a better place.

"Of all the forces that make for a better world, none is so powerful as hope.
With hope, one can think, one can work, one can dream.
If you have hope, you have everything." Anonymous?