Post #83: Best Wishes for the Holidays!!

Greetings Everybody! And Happy Holidays!

Well, it's been a while since I've written anything, and why?! It's the holidays again! Actually, it's been a lot of fun and very, very busy. My husband Jim and I went to visit his daughter in Connecticut for Thanksgiving. A ten day stay at her home . . . what a saint she is ... and a lovely vacation for us. Now, as you all are well aware, we are in the countdown to New Year's. I feel very joyous this year. And you all know why!

As I type Mother and John are on their way north to Napa for Mother's booksigning event and party. In case some of you haven't heard, her previous novels have been republished by the Authors Guild of New York. She is doing a Book Signing event with respect to her second novel at a Napa bookstore on the 16th followed by a party in her honor hosted by some of her dearest friends in Northern California. You should have heard the excitement in Anita's voice when I talked with her about it last night.

She feels like she is a schoolgirl, excited about a big award event. She feels doubly blessed in that not only has she been reborn into the living but that her novels - those novels that are so much a part of her and so dear to her heart - have also been reborn. And that the party and art show for John that she missed last June because she was so ill has also been reborn for her. She and John can now share together that special joy of personal achievement, the support and love of friends, and the miracle of a second chance at it all! Where Mother was absent, now she is there and with bells on! What a Christmas present! What an inspiration for the end of the year and the beginning of a whole new one! We can all rejoice with her and with John. I have never been so proud of and so happy for my one and only Mother!

As for her health, her only complaints are a runny eye and the fact that she gets tired periodically. But she is alive, vibrant, living each day to the fullest. She and John are together in heart and spirit more than ever, they have transformed their new house into their true new home, and Tristan continues to give her no end of enjoyment and amusement.

As a dear friend often says: "Ain't life grand?!" And it truly is.

I hope this posting finds all of you in good health, happy spirits, and enjoying friends and family as we all look forward to a wonderful set of holidays and the start of a brand new year!

Melissa