No rain when I got up at around 6:30. I got Max from his bed and we sat and read stories. I made coffee. Everyone else eventually found their way to the living room.

Tim, Max, and I once again went to Bashas to pick up some doughnuts for breakfast. We also picked up some more things while we were there. Max is quite the hit here — people give him a big smile and compliment him — I think they are all grandparents who wish their grandkids were here with them. The bakery lady gave him a free cookie to eat while we shopped. By the time we got home there were sprinkles of rain. And by 9 o’clock it was raining steady. It did that more-or-less all day.

Tim got the steaks he bought ready by marinating them and trimming them. Max inspected; it will be a fine barbecue for supper tonight. The Max and I went for a walk outside, just to check out the rain. Max managed to find quite a few puddles to splash in so that by the time we got back home his runners and socks were soaked and his hands were frozen.

After lunch Alex and I headed into town to see a movie; “Mockingjay: Part 1”, another in the Hunger Games series. Although the movie was over 2 hours long, it was enjoyable enough that it seemed shorter than that and we didn’t even finish the whole bag of popcorn we’d bought. When we got home Max had just awakened from his nap. Tim read him some stories and they played on the iPad. We had happy hour at the table and then the cooks in the group started getting supper ready. Still, it rained. Tim barbecued the steaks to perfection out under the patio roof in the backyard. Supper was great!

Max entertained us for a while after supper — he’s been such a delight these past 10 days. He wakes up happy and he goes to bed happy. So, once again, after a bath and a bedtime story, Max went to sleep. And now the four of us had the evening ahead to try and stay awake until ‘next year’. At around 9pm Tim opened up a bottle of champagne and we had some of that with the tasty marshmallowy treats Alex and Sue made today. We tried to avoid playing table games by pretending to enjoy some schlocky “New Year’s Eve” TV specials.

So, Happy New Year everyone. We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet / For auld lang syne. Twenty-fourteen has been a blast. See ya next year!