Breakfast while watching our Sunday morning shows. Then, after Fareed, I watched NFL Countdown — the countdown to another Sunday of football at our house. And from 11:00 until sometime in the evening when it became clear that the Cowboys would beat the Eagles, I sat on the couch and watched football. (Giants won, Vikings lost, Cardinals didn’t play. Seahawks, Broncos, and Patriots won, and the Packers lost! Oh well, for what it’s worth, I still think that at the end of February the Broncos will beat the Packers in the Superbowl.) It’s my last ‘football-all-day’ Sunday this year. Sue is happy about that. She had to get out of the house, just to get away from the TV noise, and go for a long walk. Bonus: She came home with boxes of Christmas chocolates from Walgreens.

Although it doesn’t feel at all like Christmas here in our place, the countdown to Christmas has begun. Next Sunday our kids will be here. Sue and I are looking for things to do with them. Sue’s marked her calendar for local church Christmas programs. She’s got baking and cooking to do. We have bags of goodies that I’m not allowed to touch — “they’re for when the kids come!” It’s all I can do to keep her from stringing up ‘icicle lights’ on the house! If it didn’t feel so wrong, we’d have stopped at one of the Christmas tree lots next to Walmart and jammed one of those poor spruce trees into the van next to the golf clubs. And, in all truth, I’m counting down the days too. I too am looking for things to do and places to go with our visitors. I only hope that we have enough time to do all the things we’ve got to do! Let’s hope that Tim and Alex don’t want to come here for a RELAXING Christmas vacation — that ain’t gonna happen!