I have fallen down on the job!!!

I have to confess...I like to be the first one to send out Christmas cards. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction to know that I am the most efficient of the people I know. Well thanks to my cousin in Scotland this is not the case!!! Drat!

I love Christmas cards...and am always hopeful that I might get them in return - and this year have decided that I will begin culling my list (well next Christmas anyway). I had got into the habbit of sending them out to both my list of friends and my mother's also. The funny thing is that even though I am 35 a lot of them think that I am a kid and therefore send a card to my Dad and include me - along with my brother who has never put a pen to paper on this front - in the salutation. I know one should not be doing things in order to receive something in return - i.e.: I should not be expecting to get a message back just because I am sending one out...but it would be nice to...none-the-less! But I am not holding my breath. I think the thing is that without them sending me a note I don't get to hear the annual gossip about what their kids (who I grew up with) are up to.

This year is my first Christmas boast...er...ahem...Christmas letter. The thing that is good in our family is that we really don't have to work too hard at sharing information which might be off-putting and sound like we are boasting. Thanks to a collection of geniuses (that's us) we are pretty much covered! ;o) Oh and there is the fact that for the most part we are a happy lot! Go US!!!

In other Christmas card news...I would, however, like it if my cousins (who I grew up less than 20 miles away from but never knew) would send me a note at some point. My mother, in the last few years of her life, had managed to make contact with them again, enjoying their company and friendship, and when we met at her funeral they expressed a desire to keep in contact. So - my gauntlet is down...sent the cards this and last year - will see what happens.

But what I was saying above about culling is based on this (well all except for the kissin' the ladies part):

Caledonia - Dougie Maclean

I dont know if you can see, the changes that have come over me
In these last few days, I've been afraid that I might drift away
And I've been tellin' old stories, singing songs
That made me think about where I came from
That's the reason why I seem so far away today.

CHORUS

Oh but let me tell you that I love you
And I think about you all the time
Caledonia your callin' me and im goin' home
But if I should become a stranger
You know that it would make me more than sad
Caledonia your everythin I've ever had.


Well I've been moved, and I've kept on movin'
Proved the points that I needed proovin'
Lost the friends I needed loosin'
Found others on the way
And I have kissed the ladies and left them cryin'
Stolen dreams there's no denying
Travelled hard with contience flyin'
Somewhere with the wind

REPEAT CHORUS

Now i'm sitting here, beside the fire
The empty room the forest choir
Flames that couldn't get any higher
They've withered now they're gone
But I'm steady thinking my way is clear,
And I know what I must do tomorrow
When the hands I've shaken and the flown I will dissapear.

REPEAT CHORUS