Well at last.

We are beginning to be normal people on vacation.  It has been an eventful couple of months.  We went to Coumbia S.C. for Thanksgiving, (fortunately before the snow arrived), from there to Mississippi and Memphis for the wonderful Christmas Concert of the Memphis Symphony  and visiting our son in Mississippi for a bit, then a not quite miserable flight from Memphis to Washington where grandchildren worked their magic as we tripped up to Northern Washington for a stay till Christmas at Lake Chelan where we went into the snow on purpose.  The children went sledding (where the grandparents declined an invitation to join in) then we explored interesting restaurants and shops in the tourist filled Leavenworth (with more sledding by the children).  As we went back to Lake Chelan I discovered that living in Georgia for forty years has seriously affected my long-trusted ability to drive on snow slick roads, even in a four wheel with studded tires (none of which were available when I lived in Idaho as a youth-sort of).

An additional two weeks back in Vancouver where our son received an Army call to spend two months in Baltimore and Washington D.C. and our granddaughters explored the equestrian arts, and enjoyed (I’m serious) a return to school.  Our eleven year old grand-daughter is exploring her choice of Universities for creative writing (she is finishing her version of a new edition of Harry Potter) her  oldest brother, a senior in High School is applying for scholarships to study bio-engineering ( he hopes to study at Georgia Tech where he was accepted some time ago.) and her second oldest brother is satisfied with playing in the band and finishing his Junior year in High School.

The whole thing has been very healing.  After a hellish flight into Memphis from Portland we are now chilling out (literally, it is colder here than it was at Lake Chelan though there is a bit less snow) in Oxford Miss where again we are visiting our third son and preparing to return home in Georgia this weekend.  Life is better now, not perfect (no life is) but better.

I hate to say it, but the horrific events in Tucson reminded us that others have greater problems than we do and even that has been healing for us. 

We appreciated the contacts from so many both in E-mail and blog comments, as well as Facebook that have shown us we we have caring friends that we have not yet even met in person.