OK!

On the eve we all exchanged gifts. I got some barley wine and a pair of warm sox (down to 40 below). I gave my love, not a cherry but a bagless vacuum sweeper! I know its not romantic but the "hints" were endless; "I REALLY need a new vacuum sweeper, one of those bagless kind". Kelly, she of the newly wedded Parkers, (my love's son) was complaining about a pain in her side which seemed to shoot down into her leg and Bill (our biker friend) and I urged her to "get that looked at". So on Christmas day at seven in the AM I get a call from my love who tells me of Kelly's being in the ER and having a tubal pregnancy and etc. All is well, thank God! Especially since she had a mis-carriage around Thanksgiving.

Spent the rest of Christmas Day setting the top bearing cup into the neck of the chopper frame, calling my children out in Oakland California who had just returned from their traditional Christmas outing of splendid breakfast and The Return of the King (they raved about the movie and said there's at least an hour of hankies and Kleenex level weeping in it).

I finished off the day watching "Black Robe"

It was a quiet Christmas. A little sad because of Kelly's misfortune and the news of a dear friend of ours having terminal cancer.

But it is all part of that great circle we call life and therefore it is wonderful as well as terrible.

Love and blessings to you all!

Merry Christmas

and a happy New Year.

CB