Sunday Salon: Summing Up

Another fast moving week - come the end of the year especially, the days just fly by in a blur. I wonder what it's like for those who still have family at home, children, guests and/or maybe some travelling to do in the next week. Heaven forbid you should still have last minute heavy-duty shopping. Exhausting to think about - but perhaps, not in a bad way. Life has slowed down quite a bit for me, but still the days fly by. Yours must be zooming by at the speed of sound.

• It was my daughter's birthday week - she shares her day with Jane Austen, so lots of hoopla. I later found out she also shares the day with Beethoven - wow! The 16th of December was obviously an important day in the grand scheme of things. The cosmos must have been dancing a jig.

• No gifts are wrapped yet, I usually save that for the last minute, probably because I don't really enjoy it much. But it will get done. I plan on being ready for the Big Day.

• This time of year I really miss my parents, especially my mom who passed away two years ago. I was sorting through some papers in a drawer and found a couple of old Christmas cards my mom had sent me and of course, I got all misty and missing her even more. I guess you never get too old to miss your mom and pop. I commented earlier on something that occurred to me with my mother's passing - how I now consider myself an orphan. Told my brother this and he said people our age can't be orphans. But that's just silly. Of course we can be. That's how I feel.

• I posted pictures of my Christmas decorations, well, with my daughter's help. I still can't figure out how to load the pix from my camera to a file from which I can pick and choose what I want to post. But once the pix are in the file, I take it from there. Generally, I use the same decorations every year, tweaking here and there. There's comfort for me in familiarity.

• I hope you had a look at my Annual Jack Reacher Christmas Story. This usually gets posted over on Lee Child's Forum. This year though, I couldn't get the file to post on their new Forum set-up, so on my blog it went. Awkward, I know, but it was either that or not post my story at all and really, it is a tradition for us Reacher Creatures. Lee Child is, obviously, a very patient fellow for allowing us to to do this every year. (Actually he's a dream boat.) If you're not familiar with his books featuring the rough, tough, take no prisoners Jack Reacher, I urge you to check them out. Lee Child is the thriller writer's thriller writer, that's for sure.

• These days, my reading has slowed down to make allowances for holiday fuss, not unexpected I suppose. So I may miss my usual Monday Book Review, if so, please excuse - it is Christmas week after all. I realize I didn't have a Favorite Book post last Thursday, but again, bear with me. My energy only goes so far lately. This coming week will be hit or miss as well, getting ready for family days - can't wait to celebrate my new granddaughter's First Christmas!!