Twelfth Night, 2011

So here we are, Twelfth night 2011. I have the tree lit for one more evening. The windows are lit one more night. I took down the 8 wreaths which line our front fence and gate. We just sent the last of the Christmas presents from under our tree into the night, an hour ago. Merry Christmas!

The tree started to take on a lean a week or so ago. Daughter Claire mentioned it, then son Graham, and now even I see a decided tilt to the east. That's OK. Also OK are the holes in the tree: this morning I cut a lot of little twigs and branches off to make floral arrangements for a funeral luncheon this afternoon. The tree looks funny, holes and tilting and all. But that's OK.

We had more than twelve days of family and fun, and funny. Big Family Christmas in Oklahoma was terrific. My big brother and my sister-in-law know how to open their home, relaxed and with smiles, and we all just stampede in and make ourselves at home. Thanks, Jerry & Stephanie.

Our Christmas here was with our three kids, all adults and in their own lives now. This is a blessing. Love the kids and what they have become.

The funnies? Well, past posts can tell you the woes we Armstrongs seem to have with the airlines. Nothing too major, but my gosh, given that I was once a flight attendant, one would think we would "have it together" in the traveling realm of things.

So daughter Claire called me this afternoon from Virginia. After brief niceties, I asked if she had delivered other daughter Gillian to the airport. The answer was Yes, at 4:00 AM, Mom. WHAT??? I countered that Gillian's flight didn't leave till this evening...and was cut off by Claire. "Mom, Gill's flight was at 5:30 this morning. Not this evening. Were you supposed to pick her up?" And then I heard a gale of laughter. Yep, she was imagining that Gillian was standing around waiting for someone to pick her up.

Thankfully, Gillian is an independent, and had driven herself to the airport. And had driven herself back home.

She knows the Armstrong clan too, too well.

The college boy Graham called last night to ask that we ship his hiking boots to him; he wants to go snowshoeing next week. So happy that he is ensconced in his university studies from the get-go in his new quarter.

And so here we are, here I am: Christmas is over. It was a lovely season of holiday.

Back to the regular fun and funny of Clan Armstrong.

Invictus maneo, 2011.