Can you believe that the highest the temperature got today was minus 1? And the wind is still blowing. Even Chelsea is not eager to stay out for any more time than it takes to do her duty.

Dick and I decided that I should not leave the house today because of the cold. So I did not and I am grateful. I put a heater on in the garage to try to take the chill off and it got all the way up to 19 degrees.

The plows DID come through and the poor guy that does the sidewalk shoveling did too. I am glad that I did not see him, I would have been worried. But maybe I could have given him some hot chocolate or something.

I did a lot of stuff today around here. Everything is pretty much put away and I am actually almost done with my preliminary stuff for CWI. The main thing that I have to do is recruit another person to be on the board.

I called my friend Nancy today too. We had not talked for some time. I found out that probably the best Mass to go to on Christmas Eve will be the 6PM. It will be busy but not as busy as the 4PM whish is for the kids. I am reminded of an Irish priest who was the pastor at a parish that I belonged to in Costa Mesa. I think the parish was St. Joachim's. Anyway. Christmas came and the church was, as usual for the holiday, packed to the rafters. Every seat was filled and there were chairs along every wall and every aisle. The priest gave his sermon and with an Irish twinkle in his eye said that none of the parishioners would mind being crowded at all as long as everybody came back the next week.

Wouldn't that be something.

When we were really little, Mom and Dad would store presents over at the two sets of Grandma and Grandpa's Houses. Dad would go to Midnight Mass, which was actually at midnight then. Before he left for Mass, he and Mother would decorate the tree and he would pick up all the presents. When he got home at 1PM, they would sort all the presents and then he would have a T-Bone steak for breakfast.

How they ever got up with us at 6AM, I will never know and Mom had to fix a big Christmas dinner too.

A house full of love and it was go good thing. With all those people in the house it could have been a disaster if we did not love each other.

Mary