Today was quite pleasant. The temperatures got ALL the way UP to 36 degrees. Chelsea and I hit the streets this afternoon again. We went just the same short walk that we did yesterday. If the weather doesn't betray us, we will go a bit further tomorrow.

Dick and I did our Christmas grocery shopping this morning. We also delivered the candy that Dick presents to the Eastern Shores Library people.

I am working on two new scratch batches of wine now that we have bottled the Currant and there are empty gallon jugs. I mixed up the Lemon Balm and also the Marigold. When I free up more gallon jugs, I will start the Wild Grape.

We had our final choir practice before Christmas tonight. We are singing at the 9:30AM Mass. We are singing Ding Dong Merrily on High and Mary Did You Know. Both lovely Christmas songs. I still remember listening to my Dad sing along with that choir on Christmas. Dad had a beautiful voice. At one time he belonged to a Barbershop Chorus. I remember there was a competition held in Sheboygan at some point in my childhood of Barbershop Choruses. I know that Dad's group didn't come in first but I KNEW that it was the best one.

I will have as much of my meal done or ready to pop in the oven before Mass on Sunday. As a matter of fact I can make the dessert tomorrow. We will have a Kunert Christmas. Too bad that Leslie, Bill and the girls can't be here. I will also miss my Bret and Bart at this time of year. If I had my druthers, time and space would not mean anything if it would bring us all together at ANY time but especially at Christmas. I miss my boys. It is so hard to accept the fact that my baby is 34 years old. I still can remember those littles face when I brought them home from the hospital.

When Bret was born, we had a black cat named Samantha with the most beautiful coat and emerald green eyes. By the time he was born, she had already given birth to two litters of kittens. Anyway, I sat down in the living room with Bret in my lap and Sam jumped up to see what I had. She kind of crept over and sniffed the top of his head. Just then, he let out a little cry. She sat bolt upright and stormed away in total disgust. Someone said she probably felt that he was OK if I really wanted him, but her babies were much cuter AND they were on their own at 6 weeks old.

Bart on the other hand came home to a big brother and no cat as I remember. When he came home, my neighbor, Joyce Nusser came over to see him. She took one look at his little face all scrinched up and red as a beet and said "He looks just like Mr. Magoo." The name stuck for a while. I still think of him as Magoo once in a whild. He was actually a beautiful baby with a flawless complection and just a slight fuzz on his perfectly shaped head.

Have a nice Friday.


Mary