Today was quiet. This morning Dick and I went out for breakfast, just for the fun of it. Chelsea and I went for a walk. She seemed to get a bit tired today so we only walked for about a half an hour. It was chilly and damp anyway.

This afternoon, I cleared the Christmas stuff off if the dining room table and put the Christmas music away. Then I took a nap. I slept until 6:30AM and was still tired by noon. I think the gloomy days are getting to me.

I also worked on the appliqued Cocker Spaniel that I am putting on a quilt. So far, it looks great. We will see how things end up.

Two more days on our blast off 1000 calorie week. Tonight we had Hunt's spaghetti sauce on spaghetti with broccoli and a salad. So we are eating tasty meals just measured and planned ones and mainly NO grazing as we go through the kitchen. That kind of behavior kind of creeps up on a person.

Tomorrow, the choir will be singing at the 10:30 Mass. We are singing with the Kindercore. One is a straight duet, the other is a version of Away in the Manger. The kids will sing the song through a capella and then we will sing the modified hymn in parts and then the kids will finish with a verse a capella again. Should be really special. I think the congregation will like it.

Jim, Bobbie and I are going shooting tomorrow. League started Friday so we have to get signed up and started.

Yesterday, at Dairy Queen, Stan and Peg Payne came in about the time we were leaving. I worked with Peg at Wells for some years. We discovered that we both have roots at St. Michael Church near Parnell. Her brother, Bernard Michaels, wrote a couple of books about the Irish Settlers there. Also, her mother went to the "Normal School" in Sheboygan Falls. At that time the "Normal School" was the teachers college. A few years later, my Mother attended that school and taught for a few years before she married my Father. At that time she stopped teaching because that was what was done in those days.

Anyway, to conclude my thought, Peg's Mother, Margaret, stayed at my grandparent's house while she was attending the school. In those days, it would have been too difficult to travel there everyday and friends helped friends out - e.g. providing room and board for friend's children when they went to school some distance away. She said that she was just reading her brother's book the other day and came upon a story of a Michaels wedding in which a Bowser was the best man. How deep these ties are.

Have a lovely Sunday. Pray for sun.

Mary