WEATHERED IN

Yesterday was a busy day, from noon on I had appointments and errands. My final destination was RvH's for a dinner party. I was ahead of schedule and it had begun to rain a bit, so I called to see if I could arrive early. She was more concerned over the weather than I was--I even offered to drive further west to pick up one of the guests who's anxious about driving in any kind of weather.

Well, by the time I arrived at RvH's--less than 20 minutes later--I understood her concern. Her neighborhood had snow on the ground and more coming, and the earlier rains were freezing. I was immediately happy that JG had declined my offer to drive out and rescue her, and I immediately decided that I was spending the night.

In less than an hour two more guests dropped out, leaving just three of us for dinner. RvH always out-does herself with tablescapes and presentation. Her home is decked out for Christmas with lots of mercury glass and silver sparkles, candles and bright ornaments. Being there is a treat. We had lovely cassoulet and good bread. The salad was stuck at home is Lake Barrington, but we never missed it. A lovely evening of good food, great conversation, and warm wishes.

The drive home today was easy--it only took two Starbucks' stops to get me here! That's 4 shots of espresso... I managed to accomplish one task along the way, so now we have a huge pork loin for Christmas dinner in Omaha.

CA and I sorted and wrapped this evening--there's always more than I remember buying. Tomorrow we leave here at 11:30am to head to central Illinois to Gigi's house, and then early Thursday morning we'll drive to Omaha.

Oh, and at 12:15pm tomorrow I have my root canal. I'm in denial. We'll leave straight after for the almost three hour drive to Gigi's. I'm planning on some good drugs.