Saturday, Christmas Eve day, one of Sue's friends, Gale, swung by to wish us well. Then, late morning, Sue's daughter Jill came up from RI to visit and have lunch with us. Sue took her hiking over at Kingman Farm for an hour or so, and by the time they got back I had started prep work on Cornish game hens for our holiday dinner - recipe from James Haller of the former Blue Strawberry restaurant in Portsmouth, NH.

Sadly, when I checked email my disciple Carl Parker's girlfriend, Sheina, in Albuquerque, NM notified me that Carl had been taken to the hospital and was in serious condition with severe pneumonia. We were in touch with her all weekend as the doctors worked to get him stabilized.

By the time we got done eating it was late, so I lit our first fire of the season in the fireplace and we just chatted and watched that before turning in.

Up early. Marissa and Colin came over at 8:30am Christmas Day and Marissa fixed us all breakfast. Unfortunately, because of other family commitments, neither Gary or Ren were able to join us. And because both Marissa and Colin had a similar situation, they left around noon.

Sue and I packed up presents and food and headed north to Ossipee, NH and Sue's brother Alan's house for their family gathering. What great fun with the snow sputtering outside and the 13 of us inside having a wonderful gathering. We didn't get home until around 7:30pm, but not ready to finish the day off so we watched the first of the Tom Cruise Mission Impossible movies, which was great fun as Sue had never seen it.

---