Christmas night.........

Another Christmas for the memory books....... what started out as a sunny and warm day has turned into a howling windy frigid night here in the hills. We have heaters on, water dripping, pipes wrapped up, and prayers sent up to the angels to keep the well-pump from going bump in the cold dark night.

We had good friends here for Christmas dinner this afternoon........ J&J, and H&K..... and we had a feast spread out on the kitchen island......... a big tossed salad and fresh bread and homemade hummus, baked salmon, smoked turkey, eggplant parmesan, Greek stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce.  And I wish I had made baked apples......... my cousin F always makes those and when she tells me about them, I promise myself to do the same, and then I just don't remember.  The baked apples will have to go on my to-do list for our next holiday dinner.  Or any old dinner, really. How can you go wrong with warm baked apples on your plate?

We opened our Treasure Box gifts this morning..... once again, my cousin F has proven herself to be the Treasure Box Queen, filling up those boxes to over-flowing with useful and fun items, everything from hand cream to catnip seeds, from pocket flashlights to Christmas trivia cards.... I lost count of how many little packages my husband and I were unwrapping--- about 15 or 20 for each of us.

After dinner tonight, we had plum pudding.... three hours of mixing, four hours of steaming, and my husband's plum pudding recipe once again was proclaimed the best yet....... we say that every Christmas.  This year's pudding had plums and pecans from our own trees on the property here, so that made it extra special.

Another Christmas in this big old house.... our fourth one here.  Last night, we watched "It's a Wonderful Life," one of my favorite Christmas movies.  It makes me cry each and every time.  The big old house in that film reminds me of this house, although this house was not in disrepair when we moved into it.  We still think of our other house in the old neighborhood......... we think of our friends and neighbors there...... the parties we used to host and the fun we all had.   But we've been here nearly five years now..... we have good friends and neighbors here also...... we've hosted a lot of parties and everyone seems to enjoy them....  this is our home, this is our house, this is where we were meant to be, and I hope this is where we'll stay...... in this big old house with the stained glass windows and the third floor library and the wrap-around porch that goes on forever.

We talked about Gracie today, and how much we still miss that dog..... she's been gone for nearly two and a half years now, and there are times when I feel like she's still sleeping in the middle of the kitchen..... right in the middle so I have to step over her to get from the sink to the fridge.  My husband was looking at Border Collie puppies on a web-site just yesterday...... cute, cute puppies, one of which looked just like our Gracie.  We don't really want to raise another puppy..... what we really would like is to have Gracie back with us.                                                                                               

It's funny with dogs..... they become your children, your life...... so dependent on you, so loyal and loving and trusting. I know that our cats really really like us, but Gracie loved us, especially my husband. She was his dog, without a doubt.  It's hard to lose a dog..... it's a loss that hits you smack between your eyes and stays with you for a good long while.  Even though we had talked about the day coming when Gracie wouldn't be with us any longer, when that day finally came, it was surreal, as if we were floating in air and our feet couldn't touch the ground.

I've always believed that when people die, they just don't go away...... their spirits stay on, close to their family and friends..... sort of checking up on what's going on.  Same with our pets, I believe....... they're here with us, watching us as we go about our days, staying close by at night.  Gracie loved us when she was here with us, so all of that love just couldn't have disappeared with her last breath.

I've read a lot of dog and cat books over the years. A line from one of them said "You have never truly been loved until you've been worshiped by a dog."

Merry Christmas, Gracie........ we still miss you, and we still love you, and we know that you're still here with us.