Count Down

~ to Christmas. Tis the season for~

Snowy days and nights
Sleet mixed with rain
Howling winds
Tolerating bad drivers
Christmas shopping
Mannheim Steamroller music
A Christmas Story and Polar Express
Going to a Christmas musical at the local high school (tonight)
Phil's Christmas party
Secret Santa fun at Joan's workplace, culminating with party tomorrow!
Baking (or candy making as it turns out this year)
Cooking up a pot of Chicken Noodle soup (yum)
Eating more salads as we indulge in the goodies along the way
Counting our blessings
Looking forward to the kids coming up to the cottage
Opening presents
Counting our blessings (yes, you have to do it frequently) (Balance the other stuff, you see)
Spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Norb and Karyl - our close friends and family of the heart
Ice skating, sledding, card playing, stuffed mushroom eating, Andy's famous pesto, and slush drinking. Sounds totally fun, doesn't it.

Along the way we try to focus on work, exercise, eating right, and (yes, again) counting our blessings.

We are healthy
We have jobs
We have Phil's Mom at age 96 1/2 still of sound mind
We have 2 cars with 4 wheel drive to get us back and forth
We have wonderful kids, a wonderful daughter-in-law, and a wonderful grandchild who (we think) like to spend time with us.
We have good friends to keep up grounded
We have our love to keep us warm - as Phil says, after all these years. (will be 40 in 2010!)
We have our fleece to keep us warm when we are apart
We retain our sense of humor, even with the stock market not quite where we want it to be
A Democratic president
Only 89 weeks to Phil's retirement
We have good health care

Talk to you soon!