Since I've been back

convert your wine glasses into little lamps with trencadis shades from a Gaudi gift shop

Picassoesque tile from Cordoba

Allie enjoying all our snow

I am wearing a necklace I got for Julie from a Madrid gallery. Not sure if I am wearing it correctly or even if she liked it

family room lights

presents before we hauled them away to Shanna's

since it has been so cold and snowy, lots of birds depend on us

broccoli-red pepper braid I made for Xmas brunch

Hannah learning about screens

all the grandbabies. They couldn't open presents until they sat relatively still for a minute

Again Hannah shrieks in terror due to scary Grandma

new Barcelona poster

cute centerpiece from museum party we went to last night. We got to keep it

our local art museum has lots of Tiffany

my vintage Mary Frances purse I took to the museum party I had my nails painted in conga line coral to match

My big find since I've been back: an Adele Simpson dress that fits me just right. She designed many first lady dresses back in the 70s. Also I am wearing necklace I bought at a Barcelona Christmas market. The textured tights I bought yesterday cost way more than the dress

Since I have been back, more than 2 weeks, it has been a lot of ups and downs. I've been struggling to keep positive and not burst into tears at some disappointments and frustrations, most which I can not go into here. Some issues have been resolved; some seem impossible to resolve.

We returned at midnight to a wall of snow. From sun and palm trees to this glacial expanse. And the next morning, Steve could not start the snow blower. As we found out several days later, leaving gasoline that has ethanol in it causes the carburetor to gum up. Again keeping this house involves a steep learning curve that we keep falling off of. Three hours the other day to install a new garbage disposal and that's with help.. Meanwhile I got my exercise shoveling. Then yet another visit from the water guy to figure out why our filters keep plugging up.

We had one day of warmth such that all the snow melted away only to be replaced by a series of storms and cold. So far the low has been ten below. I waited until it was a toasty 2 below to run that day. And it won't get any warmer in the near future.  So exercising enough has been a challenge. I was able to bicycle during the relative warmth of the first week (still had frostbite of the toes). Just the other day, we finally got the missing part to the elliptical trainer so I can at least do that inside. And extra bonus, a friend gave me a month's membership at her fancy gym starting Tuesday. True she called me at 3:30 am in Spain to tell me that(!!!) but to be fair, she didn't know I was gone.

It was a very white Christmas no thanks to the foot of snow dumped on us the night before. And very windy. I can run when it's very cold, it actually isn't as slippery then but I really hate wind. Fortunately on the very cold days, it was calm. Off to Shanna's to watch the kids open presents.

We've had Maya a lot and probably will in the future. She is very challenging.

It is New Year's eve. No plans but we did go to a party last night that our lawyer arranged. Yes let's go out with a lot of strangers. We did know one couple as it turned out and it was in the art museum so we could wander around that. And they had food from the best caterer and lots of fancy drinks so we did enjoy ourselves. I hardly ever get dressed up but I did for this.

Three months until spring. Can I last that long? Hopefully it will be warmer in Seattle and Costa Rica, January and February trips.

Happy New Year.