I kept today's chiropractor appointment, 'just in case' the stress/sadness of losing Mom decides to manifest itself with serious alignment issues.  

Getting ready to pull into the garage when I got home I did manage a smile when I noticed a quartet of feathered friends just hanging out lined up on the mini-bench on our front porch - though with just my flip phone photo it's virtually impossible to make them out.

Mary stopped by, with a wonderful condolence basket for me.  She had a difficult time finding one that wasn't Christmas-y, and was worried about this with its jingle bells.  I assured her it's just delightfully wintery - which it is - and was so sweet of her!

And I've found a new home for this fabric tree (it even has tiny gifts underneath) which was at everyone's place setting last year at the Foothills holiday lunch.  It has been hanging out on my gift shelf in the closet since then, just waiting for a new home where it would be appreciated - and now it has one.   

I talked with Lily yesterday, and reminded her that she was supposed to open her Christmas present AHEAD of time, which she'd forgotten - so she opened it while we were on the phone.  

I heard appreciative squeals from her (and then Cory) and naturally requested that she send me a photo when the placemats got used - which happened last night at their chicken-and-dumplings dinner.

I sent this thank you:

Thanks for the photo!  Glad to see they’re getting some use, because some people are “afraid” to use theirs, even though they are washable. ENJOY!

And got this in return:

haha that's what Cory said. They were like, "oh no, these are too nice, what if we spill food on them?" and I explained that they're washable! <3