Dear Kids,
         We still haven’t had any real excitement here.  That’s probably good.  Our daily happenings are pretty much the same: watching it snow outside, watching our crazy kitties, and watching the deer watch us (they really do look in our windows).   Dad gets out the snow blower every couple of days and has a great time tooling around the driveway with it.
         Friday night Vanessa’s family stayed over.  They were here for their annual ski adventure, and I’m sure it was great.  Yesterday morning they met up at Deer Valley with Nora and some of her kids, Tom and some of his kids, and Donna with Anna.  At least there was plenty of snow!  I’ve heard that the snowpack is normal for the year.  That’s funny, because it’s always either above normal, in which case they warn us of flooding, or below normal, when they warn us of drought.  But normal?  That almost never happens.
         So it’s  been nice having regular snowstorms every three or four days.  Last Sunday afternoon Nora was here with her kids, and she made biscuits.  (Her family’s biscuits are right up there with Donna’s and Vanessa’s rolls.)  When they came out of the oven, we ate them with butter and honey, and watched it snow outside.  It was one of those perfect scenes that you could put on a calendar.  Tom’s family came later and Tom roasted a pork loin on a cutting board on the counter-top, using a propane torch.  All the kids were standing around agog.  I told him he should put himself on you-tube, and he said that’s where he learned how to do it: on you-tube.  I’m sure the pork loin tasted fabulous, but I didn’t eat any.  I can’t eat any kind of meat without getting terrible stomach cramps.  That goes for fruits and vegetables, too.  But life is still good.  There are lots of good breads and rolls and biscuits out there, and no end of fabulous cheeses.
         John thinks he might have shingles.  We haven’t talked to him since Thursday, but he had all the symptoms–just no rash.  It’s weird, because his pain is exactly where mine is, in the left thigh.  I haven’t heard of anybody else having it there.  Anyway, if it really is shingles, I hope he has a light case.  If it turns out to be bad, I have an extra cane I can lend him.
         And life is still good.  Lots of love, Mom