Christmas comes...and Christmas goes...

...and I have spent part of the morning packing decorations away till next year. Little by little every day, everything gets put away, and the magic elves aren’t helping. Actually, the elves are still on the little ladder near the big tree, making believe they are hanging ornaments. They won’t have such cute smiles on their faces when I put them back into the box.

The weather has turned cold, raw, windy, cloudy...  very un-Texas-ish. We need some sun here, and the weather gods had better be on their best behavior in early February when Barry Manilow comes to the Houston area for a concert. Be still my Manilow-loving heart.

We had a nice Christmas... lunch with friends, then an afternoon visit from other friends, then a quiet Christmas dinner at night. I called some of my aunts and cousins, eMailed other cousins, and still waiting to hear back from others.... cousins all over the country. Amazing that we all lived on Long Island so many years ago, and now we are scattered all over the place. From NY to AZ, from FL to TX to IL... holidays at the kid’s table in grandma’s house is a distant memory. But we talk about all of that every year at Christmas-time as if it had happened just yesterday.

As I type, Savannah is stretched out on the sofa in the TV room... she is covered up with a blanket, and loving every doggie minute of such pampering. We discovered she likes a blanket on cold days, and she will do her best to stay tucked-in until she positively has to get up. No, this dog is not spoiled.

Speaking of spoiled, Sweet Pea is sleeping in his cat-bed which is right next to the heater. And there he will stay until he gets hungry enough to pop out of his warm comfort zone for a can of Fancy Feast.  One of our friends told us the other day that if she gets to come back to earth for a second life, she would like to be one of my pets, be it cat or dog.

...and the children were nestled all snug in their beds, with visions of Manilow singing in their heads.... (is it February yet?!)