Bringing Back a Bit of Holiday Cheer

Between the depressing headlines and the death of my friend Jane (see previous post) this has not been a very cheerful holiday season.

Fortunately, I have a busy schedule this week, and I have not been just moping around the house.  On Monday I got to see my friends Don and Tressa  whom I have not seen for many years.  Don was a science teacher at the junior high school where I taught before I moved on to the high school.  At that time I organized a trip to Mexico City over Christmas vacation for a small group of my teaching colleagues.  Don and his wife Tressa were among them, and they absolutely loved Mexico.  Don has a great interest in archaeology, and later he and I took a lengthy summer trip to Yucatan to visit a number of Mayan ruins.  (That was my first time in Yucatan.)  After Don and Tressa retired they bought a house in Arkansas.  So, although we keep in touch, I have not seen them very often.  They came back up to Ohio for a short visit, and we were able to get together for lunch.  It was great to see them after such a long time.  We talked and laughed and reminisced.  I need to take a road trip down to Arkansas sometime and spend more time with them.

Yesterday, I had lunch with my cousin Gail, the cousin about whom I have written in earlier posts.  Even though we live five minutes away from each other, we did not know of each other's existence until Gail by chance stumbled upon this blog and read about my genealogical research.  We now get together on a regular basis.  We had a very good meal at an Italian restaurant and lots of good conversation.  Gail and her husband have done a lot of traveling, but she has never had a desire to visit Mexico... that is, until she started reading my blog.  Hopefully one of these days, I will get to play "tour guide" with them south of the border.  We also hope sometime to go to Switzerland so that I can introduce them to our many distant cousins there.

Tomorrow I will leave on a short trip to Chicago to visit friends there.  Every December they have a big Christmas party, and I make it a point to try to attend.

So in spite of all the sad news, the holiday season is upon us, and some Christmas cheer has returned.