The last day of 2013, where does the time go?  As usual I want to wrap up the year relating some of my best memories.  (1)  Going to Henry's 1st grade class and talking about my "thread art". The kids were so cute, and so interested and I was thrilled that Henry picked me to be the spokesperson on his birthday week.  (2) The cicadas - from the first hint of them, the clay formations under the deck, until the exciting day they first started to appear on my neighbor's tree, I was hooked.  Sabra took a million pictures and made me a book for Christmas of them and of the tattoos that she and Laura got of the cute noisy bug now gone for a 17 year nap.  (3) Going to Niagara Falls with Paul and his family.  Being in the car with them for hours.  Zach lost his technical gadgets for bad behavior and he and I resorted to passing notes back and forth between the seats.  "Texting the old fashion way", he called it.  (4)  Cape Cod again, one of my favorite times.  This year a new cottage, small but cute and the owner Ron gave me a significant refund for not having a hot water heater for two days.  Getting money back while on a vacation is a rarity.  Maureen also taught me my new favorite bad word, a word she learned from a three year old.  (5)  Street painting with Laura, Sabra and family, Atticus and Regina, and Regina's painting on the front page of the local news.  Joel G, while making the usual announcements, made a point of saying that I was to be thanked for starting the festival....a nice recognition that made me feel good.  (6) Watching the Crazy Family Part II that Sabra made for all of us at Christmas.  Rachael as a baby, and then a little tipsy talking about Ariel, the Little Mermaid  in Cape Cod.  Glimpses of Maria and hearing her voice, all the family, wonderful.  (7) I'll just say FAMILY...they can drive you nuts, but where would you be without them?  Happy and Healthy New Year.

My favorite Christmas commercial this year is for Audi, Santa is ringing a bell, his elf assistant, standing next to him, as one man sees the Audi, he walks over to them and throws his current car keys into the pail.  Then a woman sees the car and does the same thing.  Then comes my favorite part.  The elf, a woman that looks a little dumpy, wearing an elf outfit, with tights and false ears, looks at Santa and says "We're gonna need a bigger bucket."  She says this with a sneaky little smile, like she knows she is making a joke...maybe even knows that it's a take off from the famous line from Jaws "We're gonna need a bigger boat."  Anyway, she makes the commercial and I love it.  Some do not, some say it is taking a poke at the Salvation Army's work that is important, but I think it is just cute.

There is a Salvation Army bell ringer outside of Adams' every day, since Thanksgiving.  He has a very nice face and was written up in the local paper a few years back, as having done this for many, many years.  I can't resist him or his bucket or his bell, and always pull out a dollar.  Christmas is the season for giving, and I was reminded today of something Maria did years ago.

Her bank in Red Hook had a Christmas Tree in the lobby, with cut out stars, each bearing the name of a child, the age and sex.  The idea was to pick a star, get a gift and bring it back to the bank before Christmas.  Maria took one, I think a girl, and the next time she went to the bank, took another one.  Then she asked me if I could do it, and she picked a star for me and another for herself.  Well, a week before Christmas, Maria went to the bank, and was horrified at the number of stars remaining on the tree.  She picked every one off, determined that no kid would be left out.  We laughed at it at the time, we still smile at the thought of her picking off  every star on the tree...but what a lovely thought to have at this time of year. 

Last Sunday was the 46th anniversary of our move to Tivoli.  My grandfather Poppy gave me a shoot from their Christmas cactus for our new home, and it is covered with buds for the season. Grandma and Poppy had the two windows in their dining room filled with these cacti .  I think my brother might still have the originals in the cellar.  Very easy plant, hardly needs water, doesn't mind sitting on the north side with no direct sunlight.  I used to put it out in the summer, in the shade, near the house, but it is too big to carry now.   Always is a little amazing to me that the plant knows when to put out blooms, and at its old age.  I hope plants don't go senile.  One year it did put out a few blooms at Easter, but I just figured that was Maria at work.

Anyway, it is now the official countdown to Christmas.  The family was here for a Saturday Thanksgiving and we selected catalog items that we liked, put our name on the picture and added it to a bowl from which we drew names.  It's a fun thing to do, and even Kevin got into the mood and put in his name.  I was just glad to get rid of all the catalogs, probably over fifty of them, in the recyclables today.  I tried a little cybershopping yesterday, but it got complicated, and some of the sites must have been too busy to handle the shoppers, a la Obamacare.  So today I put in a few phone orders and one the old way, filling out a form, and enclosing a check.

When the kids were little, we would get a Montgomery Wards catalog and a Sears catalog that they poured over for hours.  They were instructed to put their initials on items they wanted, and to keep the cost under $50.  Try doing that today.  After a few days the catalogs would be in poor shape, and someone in a snit had put Paul initials on girly toys.  But it gave me a place to start from, and I don't remember shopping like you have to do today.  Probably because we just didn't have all the stores to chose from, and there were no malls.  In Beacon we had Grants and Schoonmakers, Nicki's luggage and Fishman's as a last choice.  All within two blocks of each other.  Now it's a car trip, find a parking spot, buy a few things, go to another store, find a parking spot, etc., etc.  Well tis the season, and a short 22 days to go.