It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Well, a week ago my plan was to skip Christmas decorating completely this year but it seems I've changed my mind. Every morning when I wake up but before I get out of bed, I look at Nancy's picture on my dresser and "talk" with her for a few minutes (call me crazy but I swore myself to honesty on the blog). And this morning, after our "talk, I jumped out of bed and felt, all at once, like whisking all the sadness out of the house, and taking down the Christmas boxes. Nancy loved Christmas decorating and her house was always a fairyland at the holidays so I guess she was telling me it is OK to decorate without her.

I just got in from the yard, where I get many of my Christmas decorations...I cut boughs of pine, holly and cedar , gathered some pinecones, and clipped the bittersweet that was climbing up an old tree. It felt so good to be outdoors. I have to remind myself of how lucky I am to live in Maine where the evergreens and berries grow with such abundance.

Yesterday, I made my first visit to Nancy's house since she left us and visited with Aaron for awhile. While I was there, Dawn Emery from the American Cancer Society stopped by with some baked goods for Aaron. She has been a wonderful friend and support through all this. She keeps reaching out to us even though her own boyfriend, Ian, is going back into the Gibson unit for more chemo for his cancer on Monday. He was in a room down the hall from Nancy when she was there. And, in another room nearby, was the sister of a dear teacher friend of mine whose sister is also fighting ovarian cancer. I guess cancer touches every family in some way and remembering that makes me more committed than ever to continue to relay each year with "Tufts Teal Warriors" in Nancy's memory. On that note, I want to remind everyone that my son, Rob, is going to be running the Boston Marathon this spring (April 18-19) to raise money for cancer in honor of Nancy and other members of our family who have been touched by cancer. As some of you know, our family is positive for the BRCA2 gene which causes breast and ovarian cancer. Please check out this link and consider donating to Rob's run; his goal is to raise $3750. for the Brigham & Women's Cancer Foundation.

http://giving.brighamandwomens.org/robunderwood?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4ced8df478b8e390%2C0

Back to my visit to Nancy's yesterday...I ended up taking almost 100 photos of the many projects that Nancy has done around her "cottage" over the years. I can't wait to post them on this blog and share with you the stories behind each one. Some are pretty funny and many involve paint, glue guns and ladders. I also borrowed Nancy's well-worn recipe notebooks; I hope to share some of her favorites on the blog and, maybe someday, when I've got lots of time on my hands (?) in a printed recipe book to "publish" for everyone.

This little blog now has two followers...the newest being our cousin, Kathy, from Connecticut. The picture doesn't do her justice (there isn't one!) but it's exciting to me none the less. Well, the glue gun is hot now...smokin' actually...so it's time to log off the blog and get back to holiday decorating. Here's a final thought for all of you who are Christmas shopping this weekend:

"Shopping with your husband is like hunting with the game warden."