All's well that ends well

Just a last post for the last day of the year. We are going out to dinner with friends at a very good local Italian place called Intermezzo. It's right around the corner and the food is outstanding. There will be about 15 of us. Should be fun. We go out early and the return to the same house where we had Christmas Eve, the famous Joe & Jeri's. It's like Ricks place in the movie Casablanca. To paraphrase-"Sooner or later everyone comes to Joe & Jeri's." We probably won't stay long since we have become old farts in the staying awake area. We are both so used to getting up at dawn that by 10 p.m. we are leaning sideways embarassingly. Even my son James and his girlfriend Dani are having a quiet night. He bought a bottle of champagne and some canapes to heat in the oven. We will probably come back early and crash their party. All of their friends are doing something else or have gone away for the holiday. I think they might be happy to see us.

Last night we saw Happy Feet- It was fun but I didn't like the way they did the ending. It seemed like they needed to put in something as filler and decided to use a rather serious subject to be solved by one little penguin. It just didn't feel right. I thought they should have kept it in the realm of a fantasy cartoon. Most of the movie was like a Busby Berkley musical and if you know who that is your as old as me. Then they switched to somber and dark. . Oh well, that's what makes a horse race. All kinds!

Here is a shot of a little chair my husband made for me and two little fishermen along with some of my chickens and a few of the books I have read recently and consider keepers. Big Calvin Trillin fan here I have all his books but "Dinner with Alice" is still one of my favs. His wife Alice passed away a few years ago. She was his somewhat reluctant travel companion and I wondered how he would fare without her. Now he gives great walking tours of obscure and undiscovered places to eat in Manhattan with fabulous food. There's a waiting list to get into a tour. I doubt many will get to go since Calvin is getting on and he only does it twice a year in the spring and fall. The novel "Distant Land of My Father" is one of my all-time favs. It's not new, a couple of years old but I rarely re-read too many things but this is one. Wonderful story.

Lastly-here is a shot of a couple of my husband's more precious toy trains. One is antique and the other is an exact replica of a New York Central train down to the sounds it can make. It's a Lionel and it was one of the first really expensive things Roger treated himself to when we were sort of financially better off.When was that?? Someday I'll take pics of all the trains, and there are many. Many. I enjoy seeing him delight in them the way he enjoys my delight in fabric and art so we work well together and isn't that just the best mix of all? Happy New Year to all of you wonderful people who have given me so much these past months and so generously. It means more than words can adequately express. Be well and warm and safe!