Tidings of comfort (?) and joy

I was surprised on the 28th of December with one of the best Christmas gifts ever: a 24-hour visit with my New York nieces and nephews. All of them are amazing and it was a sincerely fabulous visit---full of mirth and love, scrabble exploits and boyfriend stories. I love those kids immeasurably. Speaking of, keeping up my Aunt Mary's efforts, I made the annual height markings on my wall; Ryan has grown about 6 inches since last visit, Lindsay about the same. Mikey's growth is slowing a bit, handing in only about 3 inches this year. I also got the great opportunity to make critical body measurements for sweater knitting so there was much tittering (ok, shoot me.) over relative chest measurements between siblings. Ribald, I tell you; we're just a dangerous group.

That was the joy.

The comfort---relatively speaking---is of five-days healing following the Christmas Eve tragedy of spilling a kettle full of boiling water on my left leg. I have an area about 4 inches by 11 inches of 2nd and 3rd degree burns. 2006 has been a bitch of a year for my family and its time to bid it farewell and slam the door shut. I've had more than enough.

Happy New Year to all of us.