Onward to the New Year

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.

T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

My oldest son took the above photo down at Zilker Park in Austin. The city has put up this tree of lights for as long as we've lived here, probably longer. When my kids were little, my husband and I would take them down to the park and we'd stand underneath and twirl.

When my son sent this photo he took this past Christmas season, I recalled those nights of twirling with my little boys. Those recollections brought me joy and I closed my eyes and whirled in my mind, the events of the past year swirling with me. After a year of extreme highs and lows, I welcome the new year in hope of a steadier stream of events.

Alas, rather than further lament over how to write my first post of the year, I've decided to "butt in chair" and type away. If this lands all over the place, so it goes. The new year has arrived; I'm happy about it.

Of course, I don't know if life this year will accommodate a level stream, but I can hope.

This morning, I have the house to myself. No teaching job today. Middle son and husband off at work. Youngest son safely ensconced in his dorm room at the University of Alabama after sliding in between the South's snow storm and freezing cold. He left yesterday morning at 5:30 taking the southern route through Baton Rouge and arrived in Tuscaloosa in 12 hours. Proud of that boy doing that all by himself.

Seems odd to have him gone again although I didn't see him much while home. He worked landscape and made his money for books and expenses this next semester. Had a good lesson on how if he were to depend on that income to live, he'd have to give up certain things like electricity, entertainment, and food. (Great fodder for school success.)

Middle son currently living at home substitute teaching in the day and painting the YMCA at night. Decided that working on a for profit trophy deer hunting ranch argued with his sense of wildlife preservation and conservation. Eagerly pursuing a wildlife job anywhere in the country, but employed in the meantime.

Still his presence here means my husband and I are not empty nesters. That transition has been put on the back burner. We still can't run around naked.

But today, no one is home and I won't tell you what I'm wearing. Instead, I'll begin my first blog of this wonderful new year with some photos from our holiday. Get this first one going and hopefully the ideas and words for getting back on track will arrive.

The Christmas card I sent this year, ala A Christmas Story. I want that lamp.
The other card I sent.
One of my favorites that I received.
The mushroom crab cakes I made up. No recipe, but to die for.
My granddog getting intimate with our splurge for dinner.
The dinner table filled with Swedish meatballs and potato sausage, lefsa, cucumber salad, and the lobster. A white dinner.
Me with the kids. Husband had to take the picture.
Chelsea's new socks.

Happy New Year everybody. I'd like to share my list for the new year, but, I don't have one. However, do cheer for the Green Bay Packers Saturday night. Go Pack!

The Season Continues - Lefsa Included

Why not seize the pleasure at once, how often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparations.

Jane Austen

The muse of writing has left me the past few days as I've been entrenched in the business of Christmas. I'd like to write that I've done something altruistic and spent my time volunteering or aiding those in need. Somehow that aspect of the holidays has escaped me this year. I've entertained and had family and friends around me, but as to giving of myself, no.

Driving around my town the past few days running a myriad of errands, I haven't noticed Christmas decorations. Instead, the autumn leaves ablaze with color have caught my eye. My middle son arrived home from college in northern Arizona this past weekend. As we visited the toy stores in search of Dora items for my young niece, he replied, "It is still Fall here." Indeed, the oranges, reds and yellows are vibrant and have often drawn attention from my driving. Today, I will take my camera with me.

I do hate to put out yet another post of nothing worthwhile in terms of words, but here are a few pictures of the book club party (our December book What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver) and...





... for those of you Scandinavians out there, join our lefsa making party. Lefsa is sort of like the Norwegian/Swedish version of a tortilla, chapati, or mu shu shells. (Now the Norwegians claim it, but the Swedes do also. Little contention there. I was the only Swede in attendance that night.)

Lefsa is made from potatoes. The dough is rolled out very thin before cooking. We had to experiment a little before remembering our strategy from previous years.

We use a long stick to pick up the dough and roll it onto the griddle.

I like mine spread with soft, creamy butter and sprinkled with sugar, then rolled or quartered. I also like it spread with lingonberries. A friend eats his with Caro syrup. Another with cinnamon.

And what would a Scandinavian event be without the appropriate drink - Akvavit!

The results. Wish I could share it with you, but the photos will have to suffice. Please click on my friend, Beth's, blog as she has more photos. Disregard that photo of me. I never look like that.

Greetings until a better post.