Doing the "HAPPY DANCE!"

I have FINALLY finished our Christmas letter! For someone who loves to talk, I sometimes get really, really stuck when I HAVE to write something. There's so much pressure when writing this yearly piece. First, we send out more than 250 of them, to friends and family all over the country and even a couple out of the country. Second, I know that some of the people who will be reading "the update" are English professors and professional writers! I'm always worrying if I've put in too many commas or have ended a sentence with a preposition! The phrase my dad taught me, "Never use a preposition to end a sentence with." keeps rolling around in my brain, along with the constant question, "What are the prepositions???" Third, by now, since I'm so stinkin' late, we've already received so many fabulous cards and letters. So, I keep asking myself "Is my letter is going to look pitiful compared to their letter?" Then the last reason I get a little knotted up when I write our Christmas letter is the worry that I won't give equal billing to all family members! Yes, you read that correctly! One year, Nick and Chris actually told me they were disappointed because the dogs got more space in the Christmas letter than both of them together. Now, granted, I think they were like 12 and 14 at the time. But still...I did have a witty retort when they complained that year, but it didn't stop their comments. I told them that if they would start doing more funny and cute things then I would have more stories about them to share with everyone. After actually saying that sentence out loud I realized how much trouble I was inviting to the sanity and safety of our home. So, instead, I grabbed the computer and cut out some dog stories and wrote more about the wonderful young Markin men!

So, now that I'm finished with my part of the yearly letter (Rod does the editing and the printing) I now have time to get caught up in other things. I have several thank you notes to write for various things from donations to the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, Christmas presents and just to some friends for being friends. I also have about a two foot high pile of papers that I need to file in the 20+ 3-ring notebooks I've organized in anticipation of income tax time. I really need to take down Christmas decorations. I should take down the tree, but, I just finished getting the decorations on it on December 26th!



This is my "Peggy Karr" tree.


I also have to ornaments on it that my phriend Cindy tatted for me a couple of years ago.

But, here I am, sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace, happy that I'm not a horse. We are in the middle of a cold front and right now the temperature is -1.6 degrees! It got down to -15 degrees last night with a wind chill of -25! Now, we have a barn with very nice horse stalls that Doc and Dude could go into. But, they are perfectly happy standing outside in the bitter cold, wearing their snappy blue coats and eating they bale of hay!

Before I leave this post, I thought you might like to see a picture of Deoje in is Rudolph costume!



OK, I've enjoyed myself long enough. It's time to get back to work!
Thanks for checking in.
Thanks for reading.

Annette