Where has the year gone?

Well, the year, productively speaking, is over. The girls get out of school in less than an hour, and the Christmas vacation begins. By the time it ends, it will be a new year.

I finished all my Christmas preparations, aside from a few shipping snafus, earlier this week. All the gifts are bought, presents wrapped, cookies baked, and carols sung. Now, you'll just have to take my word for this, because I have not taken one single picture of this holiday season. So, here's a variation on the old bear in the woods question - if there's not a page about it in the scrapbook, did it really happen? Like I said, you'll just have to take my word for it.

All rambling comments aside though, this year has gone by in a flash. I think we all know that as you get older, time goes by faster. Then there's the whole old job/new job/moving factor. That adds some speed too. Each year I think maybe we'll have a boring year that will move slower, but it never happens. I guess it never will until the inevitable happens and we move into eternity. That happened for a family member this week. My Great-Aunt Charlotte passed away. Although she had lived a long life, it is always a sad occasion when you lose a family member. It seems though that this is happening more frequently lately, partly because (again) we are getting older, and also because our families seem to be genetically predisposed to long lives, so we are just now losing our "great" generation. I know it's inevitable, yet I just can't bring myself to think about losing those I love. As a card that my roommate in college gave me when I had to have my appendix out said, "You realize this comes as a great shock to those of us who thought you were invincible."

Well, I don't really have anything else of consequence to say, I just didn't want you guys to think I'd dropped off the face of the earth during this blessed holiday season. Enjoy your Christmas, and be safe!