I stumbled out of the bedroom for my morning tea thinking "I wonder what the kitchen looks like?" I set the convection oven to soak, but all of the food was put away and the dishes had been washed. I have a lot of food in the fridge, so I hope my son comes by occasionally for a hot turkey sandwich. That's what I'm planning for me for lunch.

This occasion was just different enough, food-wise (ham and turkey, for example, and roast veggies instead of mashed potatoes) that it wasn't just a late Thanksgiving. I had several chilled bottles of Martinelli's sparkling cider, and I picked up a couple dozen plastic snap-together plastic wine glasses at the restaurant supply. There was a gale of laughter when my son returned from a trip to the kitchen with a tumbler and proceeded to pour himself a larger amount of the cider. A dinky 4 ounces at a time was too slow for him!

Moonglow has been making some hats, and there was a poignant moment late in the evening when we talked about her project. I remarked that one of our friends at dinner had tried to teach her to knit. "But Deanna taught me to crochet, and this is the needle she gave me." Deanna was the friend who committed suicide in September and her project was transformed into a sort of personal ceremony. There are some tools I use in sewing, in cooking, and such, that still remind me of the person (often a parent) who taught me how to use it, and there is a small moment of pleasure tinged with sadness that they're gone. And a reminder that we need to pass along their memory with stories about those activities.

I need to get some actual work done today, but I'll go check in for progress reports on Spaw and on maeve's house. Interesting reading!

SRS