The week started off in green, with winter arriving in southernmost light but no snow. Then the world didn't end with the Mayan calendar on the 21st but howling winds brought 4 inches of white to cheer up the snowboarders and give the turkeys places to hide, away from the oven. We walked down the hill in snowboots for the first time this season, on our familiar drive to Michigan for a pre-Christmas family get-together. On the way are full-mast wind turbines in Ontario but half-mast flags in Michigan --- shared sorrow over the massacre of children in Connecticut. Shared grief helps, but it will take more than flags to reduce the madness of guns in America. The Rest of The World watches in disbelief.
That downer is set aside as warmth from the kitchen and from family smiles fill the house when we arrive. Sons and daughters out from school, expectant couple, golfers temporarily without game, jokes about holiday nuts, stories from work or travel or (gulp!) Weight Watchers! All digested along with the latest in a decades-old tradition of turkey, special veggies, and sweet treats.
But we're blue because we're missing very important members of our already small group. One is from the fab four of siblings who is absent for the first time in my memory, and we want her back asap. The other is a beloved aunt hospitalized just the day before. We're hoping for a Christmas miracle to get her home.
On the drive home, the roads were clear and dry until blowing snow welcomed us back to Georgian Bluffs by midnight. Good thing Santa had been waiting at the border to guide us!
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