While I would love to be able to express the usual hope and optimism for this new year, I must admit that I am finding that difficult to do given the incredible political disaster we have been witnessing since the election.  While I am hoping that cooler heads will prevail, I am definitely beyond worried, and dread the disaster I see constantly unfolding before me. Obama did a wonderful job cleaning up Bush's mess - though of course the Big Question is: Will there be anything left to clean up after Trump and his cronies trash everything?!?! 

At least my late afternoon coffee yesterday did the trick, 

and I actually made it well past midnight last night!  

There were eight of us celebrating over at Jeannie's (Donna & Tony, Cheri and Bob, and Anne), where we ate well and played card games into the night.  This year we played for "money".... nickel and quarter antes!  Not quite the big leagues - but Tom was happy to rake in one of the "big" pots.

The only non-drinker, I suffered the only mishap when Tom's glass of red wine got jostled and splashed all over the front of my sweater-shirt (white, of course.)  Soaking it right away certainly helped, as did applying salt, and then once home I immediately washed it.  It looks pretty good this morning, though I am going to let it dry on its own before I will know for sure whether of not I dodged that bullet.    

It seems to have rained steadily all night (at one point I even heard thunder) so there should be lots of snow up north for Alex; he plans to head up to Flagstaff (tomorrow?) for a couple of days of snowboarding - before he leaves mid-week for more snow-boarding in Colorado.  Then in mid-January he takes off for a 3-week tour, around the Four Corner states, for work.  So much for him being around to help with all the raking after everything dries out....

Even not getting home until 1:00 I did manage to get a reasonable night's sleep (slept in until 7:00) so maybe I can get back to work on Hilda's pillow today.