Auntie Sue has been in town for a few days of visiting. Last night, after saying good-night to Mother, we headed over to Border's Books for a cup of whip cream laden hot chocolate and an assortment of decadent sweets that were sure to produce an immediate sugar high. We spent several hours laughing, crying and generally having a great time. It was a sorta late night for me and thanks to the sugar and chocolate, I had a difficult time sleeping but what fun we had!

Moping around the house today, sleeping and reading. Feeling too crummy to do anything but getting anxious to get out.

Thanks to this virus (and an out of town the trip earlier in the month), I finished two books in December and started a third. My favorite was "River Town, Two Years on the Yangtze" by Peter Hessler who writes an account of his two years as a Peace Corp volunteer teaching English and American literature at a local college in the river town of Fuling. It is a fascinating book and very well written. Peter's details his experiences as an American living in a radically different and quickly changing society. Among the many things I gleaned from the book was the observation and explanation of some of the behaviors we observed while in China but didn't quite understand.

The second book is "The Places In Between" by Rory Stewart who writes about his incredible walk across Afghanistan shortly after 9-11. Sometimes funny, often filled with anxiety and hardship, Rory followed the route of Babur, Afghanistan's first Mughal emperor. He often quoted passages from Babur's travelogues followed by his own descriptions of the same area. This became a bit tiresome to me but history buffs will probably enjoy it. Quotes or not, Rory has an amazing story to tell!

Finally, I just started "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver. I picked up a copy at McKay Used Bookstore with some store credits I needed to spend. This book has been around for a while but everything I read indicates it is a great story.

As last week drew to a close, it was clear some nasty little bug was taking hold. I soldiered through work on Friday and last minute shopping on Saturday but was finally KO'd on Christmas Eve day, canceling participation in all family activities to crawl under a blanket for a day of reading and sleeping.

Up early on Christmas Day for a morning of cooking and festivities with the family then back to bed. One of the best Christmas gifts....my brother-in-law labored many hours turning Daddy's 8mm film (years 1950-1970) into DVD's. John and I spent several hours watching with amusement the young Smith family. I have hours worth of watching to go!

With much disappointment, I canceled a two day family visit in Virginia, This morning, still seriously under the weather, I was glad not to be driving. John is off to Alabama to visit family tomorrow, we are looking forward to the New Year's weekend and spending some time together!

Some pictures from Christmas Day:

Daddy and Mother at dinner

Daddy lounging in Mother's wheelchair

Carol

Me sitting by the air conditioner trying to stay cool!

Three sisters, hope I am not passing along "the bug"

Packages galore

My almost sweater from Carol...look at those eyes, not feeling too good!!

What a mess but such a Merry Christmas!!

John and I went to Market Square this evening to look at the lights and watch ice skating in the holiday rink. I took a number of photos, most of them not very good but I ran this one through Adobe Photoshop as a "watercolor" print. A little different...

Christmas cards waiting to be signed and mailed! The holidays are back but where is our Christmas weather? The temps have been hovering in the 60's, I am expecting the daffodils to break ground any day now.

Another trip to Arkansas this week. Aside from the usual Delta short term delays (causing a near miss of my return flight in Atlanta), assorted minor mechanical problems and the constant stream of turbulent air south of Tennessee, everything went okay.

The most interesting part of the trip occurred this morning when we pulled up at the corporate headquarters where we had a meeting scheduled for 8:30 am. An evangelical group from Kansas City was on a field trip to protest the corporation's recent advertising in gay and lesbian lifestyle magazines and the government mandate to resume selling the morning after pill. This motley group of about 30, positioned themselves along the main boulevard with signs such as "Wxxxxx supports sodomy." One hippie sorta Jesus looking guy in blue jeans was draped over an 8' cross looking bored. A slick preacher with a megaphone shouted his message mostly in the direction of the corporate offices, an audience of vendors, employees, security cops and real police. While the police were busy snapping photos with their cameras, most everyone else was snapping photos with their cell phones. It was quite a sight and it was with some difficulty that we pulled ourselves away to attend our meeting.

John and I escaped to Asheville last weekend for our annual holiday getaway. We were a couple of weeks earlier than usual, but based on our calendars, it was either last weekend or not at all.

We had no real plans so we knocked around the city, exploring our favorite shops and galleries. On Saturday, we lunched at the Laughing Seed Cafe and slipped into Malaprop's, a funky community bookstore, to shop. Always on the hunt for a new travel adventure, I picked up a copy of "The Places in Between," about Rory Stewart's walk across Afghanistan.

We lingered in several small shops on and around Wall and Haywood Streets, then drove to our hotel to check-in and to inquire about Togar Rugs. John is in the market for a large area rug and I found a flyer for Togar on a literature rack in the North Carolina Welcome Center. What a great find! Togar has a beautiful selection of Persian, Russian and Tibetan rugs. We were particularly impressed with their selection of colorful kilim rugs. But John is still exploring his options so we took way only ideas.

Dinner was disappointing! For 7 years I have been trying to convince John to eat dinner at the Early Girl Eatery. Billed as a southern restaurant with a healthy, regional emphasis, the menu looks very good and there is always a waiting line. He finally agreed and before we knew it, we were squished at a small table, picking at pork dishes and wondering why this place was on my "must try" list. Not a restaurant we will give a 2nd chance to. After dinner, we felt sorry for ourselves and grabbed incredibly rich chocolate cupcakes from Old Europe Coffee House. We spent our evening eating cupcakes, watching TV (National Lampoon's Vacation no less) and reading.

More gallery shopping on Sunday and brunch at The Corner Kitchen in Biltmore Square. Good food, but slow service due to the massive after church crowd. One of the more interesting items on the menu was a "breakfast salad." This is basically a salad with an egg (prepared to ordered) on top. I couldn't decide if I thought it would be good or bad so I ordered something else.... maybe on another trip?!

Our trip was over too quickly but we are already looking forward to next year's trip!

A small outdoor market on Battery Park, mostly jewelry and other handcrafted items.

Page Avenue with the Grove Arcade in the white building on the left

The elegant Grove Park Inn

Another shot of the Grove Park, John is walking in the foreground
The Asheville skyline from the backporch at the Grove Park Inn

One of two 7' fireplaces in the lobby of the Grove Park Inn

A beautiful sunset for the drive home!

Work has been very consuming recently so spending this evening in the company of friends was a real treat for John and me. We filled two of six seats at a small dinner party hosted by Will and Kim. Will created a fabulous dinner of spicy vegetarian chili, cole slaw and vegan cornbread, capped off with large slices of vegan raspberry cheesecake. If the food and lively conversation weren't enough, one of the other guests, local author Ron Miller ( "The Happy Cannibal"), treated us to a showing of his slides of China taken on one of his trips exploring the world. Although travel is always near the front of our thoughts, the slideshow got us thinking about travel plans for 2007. Time to begin planning!!

Thanks for another great Friday night Will and Kim. We wish you success on running two 5k's tomorrow!