New Year's Eve

One year ends and the new one begins.  

This year ended with one transition -- my mother died at the end of November.  She suffered from Alzheimer's disease and has not known who I was in at least a decade.  I really lost my mother long ago but her death is still very final.  

The new year will bring other transitions, my son is a senior in high school.  He plans to go to away to college in the fall.  My daughter will be sixteen in the fall and able to drive herself places.  My carpool and taxi service days will be over.    

Winter Roses

Rose Hips and Melting Snow

 Today was a cold, damp day.  It was warm enough for the snow to start melting but cold enough to still feel like winter.  Tomorrow, the temperature is supposed to drop, making it clear that the weather was just trying to fool us into thinking that spring was coming.

What is coming is a new year -- 2011 is just around the corner.  All over the internet, people are making plans for the year to come and posting new challenges, goals, and resolutions.  I am not ready for that yet -- I am savoring the end of this year.

Christmas 2010

It was a white Christmas Eve in Chicago on Friday.  After watching the Joffrey Ballet Nutcracker, we walked up Michigan Avenue and visited the Lions in front of the Art Institute of Chicago.  This year the traditional green wreaths have been replaced with new wreaths that are made up of 2,011 cranberry colored, solar powered spheres.  They looked very cool in the snow.