It's OVER!!!

Kate Haruch, daughter of our dear friends Cinda and Jamie, is now a charming young lady who would probably be mortified at the story from which this blog title emerged. When Kate was very small, sitting through church meetings was sheer torture--as it is for most small children and, truth be told, for a good many adults. Kate and her parents often sat one or two rows behind us in church and none of us who were there will ever forget one particularly tedious Sacrament meeting that we endured together. At the conclusion of the closing prayer, while the chapel was still silent, Kate stood up, threw both fists in the air in a victory salute and loudly proclaimed, "It's OVER!!!"

Never have those words meant more to me than now, as I sit at my computer for a long overdue post, and gaze at that lovely piece of parchment paper that loudly proclaims IT'S OVER!! I can't even express how relieved I am--as my Dad used to say,"It's like beating your head against a brick wall....sure feels good when you stop."

Since graduation day on the 13th, it's been a whirlwind of activity with my (almost) entire family around me. Patrick was, sadly, unable to make it here and spent a miserable weekend in London trying to cajole American Airlines into coughing up an appropriate flight for him while he battled a raging fever. We missed him terribly, but he is happily on the mend and I hope to get him and Annike here again sometime next year. In the meantime, I have spent glorious hours visiting with my wonderful children and lavishing hugs and kisses galore on all five grandbabies. Sunday the 14th was particularly perfect--I spent most of the day lounging on my couch, with Cole sound asleep on my chest and Hailey, Nathan, Connor and Hannah playing happily beside me. It really, truly, does NOT get better than that.

SO--more pictures of my adorable family will be coming shortly. Right now I'm so tired I couldn't put a coherent sentence together with both hands and a flashlight so I'm off to bed. Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!