Lack of posting / new leaf!

Okay - last but not least....(well, actually, I will have two more Christmas gifts to post, but I don't feel like pulling them out - that will happen later today).

I wanted to take a minute to explain my lack of posting (both here and in my groups!) during the month of December. As is the case for most of us, I get very busy in December. A couple of posts ago I included a picture of the front page of the family calendar that I do for my family. It is truly a labor of love, but it is pretty labor intensive. I'm always a bit delusional in that I THINK I can print calendars and do other things at the same time, but it really doesn't work that way. The calendars take enough concentration that I pretty much have to stay glued to the computer.

Then...add in the stitching stuff, the shopping stuff, and my time in December just seems to evaporate.

This year in particular was hard....I lost a full weekend to an unexpected trip to Brownsville Texas due to the death of my stepfather. I had to be there for my mother, even though she and I have had a rather dysfunctional relationship for the last 10 or 15 years. She and Dave had been married for 35 years in November, and his death, while not necessarily unexpected, happened suddenly. He's had a liver disease (hemochromatosis - the build-up of excess iron in your blood) for most of those 35 years and wasn't doing all that the doctors recommended. He apparently went to sleep one night, lapsed into a coma, and never woke up. He was 76, and my mom is just lost without him. They had a strange relationship, but she certainly misses him.

Anyway - my New Years resolution (heck, not even New Years, more like my post Christmas resolution!) is to be a better blogger and a better group member by posting more often - in both places!!!!