. . . and so Christmas Day has come and gone, and the pie crust stuck to the tart pan, and card games were lost and won, and many, many loads of dishes were washed . . .

Today will offer a small hiatus, between saying goodbye to our Vermont family in the morning and welcoming our Harmony friends in the evening. I will be vacuuming up Christmas tree needles and washing table linens and--I do hope--sitting in the corner of a couch doing nothing at all. Food-wise, I am passing the torch to the children.

But how lovely it is to have them here, our three bright faces. To have a young woman hanging around cozily in the kitchen and voluntarily telling me how much she loves my son! To have that beloved son bustling around making coffee for his grandmother, playing with balsa wood airplanes with his young cousins, trash-talking his grandfather over games! To have his big bearded equally beloved brother come up behind me and hug me ten times a day! Oh, these dear ones. I've made so many dumb mistakes as their mother. How did I get so lucky anyway?