Here and Gone

Yes, I could be referring to the year, since this is the last day of 2009, but I'm actually referring to the coming and leaving of our daughter, Lynne, and granddaughter, Joanna. They came to visit us last Saturday (the day after Christmas in case you have lost track already), and left yesterday. We truly enjoyed their visit and now its back to the routine.

We are always happy to have family visit our home. We do not have the facilities to host people as we used to, but there's always a way to do it. We also had some of my extended family here to visit us one evening while Lynne and Joanna were here - my nephews, Jay and Kevin and their wives, and my niece, Marianne. What a fun evening that was. It was noisy in our living room, but I enjoyed their visit so much. Like me, these folks have no living parents. I commend the "Plank" family for getting together once a year as they have done since their parents passed away. Our family would like to get together once in a while and we're finding that more difficult all the time. Grandchildren get married, have children, jobs, schedules, etc. making it more difficult to get everyone together at one time. And so we have found that it is often more plausible to have smaller groups meet when they can.

As to the year 2009, it truly has been an eventful year, both personally and nationally. Since this is not a "Christmas letter" I won't go into detail here. I'm just wondering if the way we say the year will change now that we're leaving the "0's" and going to "2010." I guess time will tell that.

So for this year I will bid adieu to you readers (if I still have any left) for this year and continue on my journey into a new year.

Pilgrim on the way