Yes, I'm still alive and kicking! Holiday time got busy, busy, busy with dinner guests on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th. In the midst of all that we had to pack for a two-week vacation to see some of my family. Whew!

The trip was a good one overall. We had a nice time with my closest-in-age brother and his family in Virginia. Taught my nephew to make balloon animals, built lots of stuff with Legos, played a little soccer and even some Barbies with my niece. My sister-in-law was down with the same flu that knocked me flat in early December, so we didn't see much of her.

Next we spent a few days exploring Savannah, Ga. I'd read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil last spring in a book group, so that kind of colored my view of the city as a place with a well-hidden dark underbelly. I think the Spanish moss does a lot to perpetuate the creepy feeling. Very "Fall of the House of Usher." Ironically, the big exhibit at Savannah's art gallery was Philadelphia-area artist Andrew Wyeth. No escape from Pennsylvania, I guess. Great exhibit, though, with many pieces he's painted of his African-American neighbors. One of my favorites was a reclining nude young woman--her silky brown skin just glows. Really lovely.

Next we spent about 5 days with my parents in south Florida. It was cool and rainy several of the days, but still far warmer than in Philly! While my mom had led me to believe Dad is at death's door, I was relieved to see that he's doing quite well. He still tires out easily (heart condition) and gets confused and upset (Alzheimer's), but he still has many enthusiasms and seemed to enjoy catching up with Joel and I. While there, we hunted for seashells on Sanibel Island and also toured the winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.

Heading north proved more of a challenge than we expected. The one thing you never want to happen did indeed happen--snow in the South. For three inches of snow, South Carolina declared "a state of emergency" and called in the national guard. This seemed laughable to us until we tried to drive there. They have no snow plows and no salt. Every bridge is a death trap. Our 13 hour drive to my brother Tom's house took us 17.5 hours spread over two days. Traffic jams due to accidents led us to give up and bed down at a hotel the first night. The next morning was the scariest ride of my life. I just prayed we'd make it out of S.C. alive. We counted 29 vehicles slid off the road, plus a multitude of cleared accident scenes with skid marks and broken glass. Joel did great on the slick roads and got us the heck outta there.

It was sad we were cheated out of some time with my wonderful college-aged nieces. Meg's nearly finished teacher's training after earning a BA in English, and Jill's a freshman studying history and poli sci. She wants to be a diplomat for Canada (where they were born and raised until my sister-in-law got her PhD and a teaching job in the States). I've never met such bright, articulate, self-assured, affectionate kids. I'm hoping my brother and SIL will share all of their secrets of successful child-rearing with us when our time comes.

We got home on Jan 5th only to discover our housesitter was knocked flat with stomach flu (and Keats the kitten went from 4 lbs to 6 lbs in our absence and is now a lean, mean mischief machine). It was a big scramble to try to de-germ the house, but alas Joel caught it anyway. So, our house is a disaster area, we haven't unpacked yet, Joel is dragging around and I have a head cold (achoo!). I think we need a vacation from vacation!