On Monday I met a few pals from my local book group for our annual holiday luncheon. There was supposed to be 4 of us, but Ruth Ann  had slipped on ice that morning & broken her wrist, so was in too much pain to join us. She missed a great outing, with good food & a cute red-haired, bearded waiter. We went to an upscale little restaurant, where they were serving free mocha lattes & we were so busy talking & laughing that the waiter had to return 3 times before we were ready to order. Peg, who'd made the reservations, had requested a window seat, so we had a lovely view of the road construction in front of the building. lol Mary Ann showed us her father in an old-timey photo on the wall, which are filled with antique style pictures & watercolors. Since I don't do parties or revelries as most people do for the holidays, I always look forward to our low key gathering. Being with friends is a wonderful celebration of good cheer.

   Got all my shopping done, decorations have been up for a week and snail mail cards are all on their way or have arrived. My sister has been toying with the idea of reading "Anna Karenina" & I found a nice edition at Barnes & Noble. After sampling a few paragraphs, I intended to read as much as I could of it before giving it to her. But then I stupidly had it gift wrapped at the store! I'll have to get the publishing info from her on Christmas Day so I can look for it at the library. I've read other things by Tolstoy, but not that one.

   I bought my mom several needlework kits & lots of word search puzzle books to keep her busy. Her retirement years are proving to be quite boring & she lacks the confidence to join senior citizen groups that might help, so I try to keep books & other activities around to give her something to do, as she gets even more grouchy when she's bored.

  My sister & I had a good time at the dog show, but I've not yet downloaded the photos from the camera. That will be a future post or two.