Happy Christmas

Good Christmas morn to you. The tea kettle is on. John Williams is playing his classical guitar on the stereo. And the girls are asleep. Meanwhile, the sun shines on dew-laden grass, and all seems well with the world. From the Colberts (in Maryland), we hope this is truly a day full of blessings for you.

Homebound

Katie and I were both home today. She got up late and spent the day watching "Stepmom" and "Hoosiers" (and probably some channels Joan and I are not fond of--like MTV). I spent the day in bed, trudging to the computer, trudging back to bed, coughing, taking vitamins, trudging up to bed, and repeating the process.

I think I'm done being sick. It's not nearly as fun as I'd hoped. And I'm not keen on topping Frank's diabetic coma. That was just way overdone. He hit it out of the park with that one.

We missed the Christmas Eve service at church. But we did have fried rice with beef and pork that Joanie picked up on the way home. In a season filled with hams and turkeys and whatnot, fried rice is a welcome culinary diversion. Now the girls are going to make Christmas cookies and I'm going to trudge back to bed. Gotta rest if we're going to wish Jesus a rousing Happy Birthday! tomorrow. Merry Christmas, everybody.

Merry Christmas Eve

Hello All!
Merry Christmas Eve to you! We went to the 4:00 family service this evening (Em was singing and Kyle was acolyting). Amy stayed home still not feeling quite up to par. She did eat a little bit last night and today, though, so we think that she's turning a corner with this thing. She, Bob and Kyle are in the family room watching some scary movie.............Em and I are hiding out in the computer room. We don't do scary.
Tomorrow will be a quiet day here. Our tree has DIED and we can't wait until we open presents so that we can shove it out the back door. Needles everywhere. We don't dare light the thing for fear it will erupt in flames. Gee, and we bought this tree from the local firefighters. Go figure :) Maybe they're trying to drum up business.

We hope that everyone has a happy Christmas morning. We'll try to give you a call during the day. We're hoping that we're all healthy by the weekend so that we can try to get a trip to Indiana in before school starts up again. Think healthy thoughts! Love, Bob, Beth, Amy, Kyle and Emily

Misery Loving Company

I went to work today. I'd finished my book. And nobody was going to be home to pity me when I coughed. So I went to work.

Work is a lot like home. Nobody pitied me at work, either. What a wasted effort. I coughed often throughout the day. I even made regular trips to Joan's cube to pilfer Puffs from her tissue cache.

I later found out that one of my co-workers had just come back to work after being in a diabetic coma for three or four days. I really must either work on my timing or up the ante. What beats a diabetic coma?

I've been swatted by a bug. Something has laid me low with a cough, congestion, and a general feeling of "blaahhh." I'm staving off boredom with a book called "Tamsin," written by Peter J. Beagle. It took a while to get started, but the last two-thirds were worthwhile. I read much of it today and finished it tonight.

Clifford is home. One alternator and several labor hours after I dropped him off at the Ford dealership, he has successfully consumed over half of my paycheck. Naughty ol' truck. It is still nice to have two vehicles (that operate) in the driveway. Now we need to get the Crown Vic fixed and loaned out. Right now it is blocking access to a relatively clear garage.

Elvis is in the house....of God.

I love it. Our church service at Cornerstone began with John donning a worn leather jacket and singing "Blue Christmas." Find that one in the Baptist Hymnal. I dare you.

The rest of today will be devoted to re-ing. That's re-laxing, re-clining, and re-charging.