We spent some Christmas time celebration last weekend with friends (a mother, Nona, and daughter, Valerie) whom I have known since the 1960's, when they were neighbors to my family in Helena. I was in high school, and Valerie in grade school, so I would baby sit her whenever her mom was out for an evening. Most of my family have passed away or have lost touch with me, so my son Ryan and I felt very at home to be with Nona and Valerie. Nona hired me to work as her assistant in the Governor's office the summer after I graduated from high school, 1970. She was my mentor, the woman I looked up to for inspiration as I went off to college the end of that summer. Nona and Valerie then moved to New York City, where Val finished school and Nona worked for the City of New York. Valerie is now a union organizer for medical workers in San Francisco, and Nona just retired, still living in Brooklyn. We met at Big Sky Friday evening, spent Saturday seeing the Grizzly and Wolf recovery center (hooowwwwwll) in West Yellowstone, then they took me out to dinner at Lone Mountain Ranch to celebrate my 50th birthday, which was Dec. 20th. I have to say it was the best Christmas and birthday I've ever had, even though we didn't really celebrate them "on the day".

Nona's work place was right across the bridge from the World Trade Centers - it was her office view. It was very comforting for us to be together. We returned to town on Sunday, and they helped us decorate our Christmas tree before they left for Great Falls to be with Nona's mother for Christmas. Last night we opened a few presents we received. Ryan is really into the Lord of the Rings, so his wish fulfilled was to get two movie posters of Frodo - one looking up, and one looking down at the ring. A typical teenager, his room is filled with posters. Most of them he gets for free from the local video stores and cable tv office, where he asks the staff to save posters and point of purchase displays for him.

We are having a quiet morning in our jammies and will spend a quiet day just being home together and counting our blessings.

Love and merry Christmas from Montana to all of you.

Alice