Hester- I promised you an entry, so here it is.

So there is this huge hill at one end of my block that is right by the railroad tracks that run parallel to my home. Friday was the first major snowfall of the season. Granted the snow did not fall in Lincroft, I decided to spare life and limb and not go in to work that day. It was both a good decision and a bad one. Good because I probably would have killed myself driving to work on unplowed snowy roads as I cursed Brookdale for being open. Bad because I spent time at home, and I'm slowly beginning to realize that I as much as I love my parents, I can't stand being in the house for that long with them and not go out to work for some period of time. So back to my story. Once the snowing subsided, I headed out to dig out what was Happy car and shovel with my father. The snow was absolutely glistening. I began to hear the little kids at the end of the block shrieking with delight. It immediately brought me back to when I was younger. I lived for being outside on days like that and the "hill" was the best part. Everyone would get bundled up, snow pants, boots, jacket, hats, and mittens to "waddle" our way to the "hill" with our snow tubes, sleds or whatever else we could think of that would slide real fast. The biggest challenge was trying to climb up the in our snow outfits. It was such a view once we managed to make it to the top. Then we braced ourselves for the what was next. We would hop onto our sleds and in one fluid motion we were off sledding down the hill. What a rush. The hysterical screaming, the holding on for dear life, the realization the pavement of the street was fast approaching, and then the competition to see who managed to slide the furthest. For about 5 minutes, I really wished that I was 8 again, and go sledding down the hill, rather then be that oddball old person with the group of 5 year-olds sticking out like a sore thumb.

I finished up cleaning the cars, which was an amazing workout. You want a full body workout- go shovel some snow. Upper body arm strength, utilize the quadriceps, use your core to keep you stabilized. Awesome. Then I returned inside to do the very fun christmas card writing. Okay...I'll admit it...I didn't finish it all, cause I don't have lots of peoples' addresses....seems everyone has moved multiple times and I just can't keep up. Some people got cards and well...others...sorry...and really people what do you expect me to write...I'm a mathematician for crying out loud. It was a painful 2 hours and I think I only wrote 5 cards. :oP

Oh the Christmas tree went up ....about a week ago. I adore the tree. I'm not great at designing, I just love looking at the sparkling lights and how they bounce and shimmer off of the ornaments. I love how you can see our tree out the front window, it makes the house so inviting and warm. I rejoice in the decorations...let me be specific, I am not talking about the gaudy plastic crud people put on their lawns (that includes those blown up balloon wisemen, christmas pooh, disney characters, no matter how enthralled I am with them.) I am talking about the elegant- wreaths with red bows, candles in the windows, garland on railings, traditional stockings, cards strewn on the walls. Think of the scene when Papa comes home in Little Women. That is what I love. Just the little touches that make life feel special during a time when it is icy, cold, and bitter.

Mom's last treatment :::keep your fingers crossed::: is this week. It got pushed back a week on account of something being low. I can't quite remember what. Hopefully this is it. It's been a scary 6 months, so I hope this is the end of it. I can tell she is getting antsy. Friday while my dad and I were shoveling, she walks out all bundled up and grabs a snow scraper and starts attacking the cars. We both double take and yell, "What are you doing?!?!?! You're supposed to be resting." Needless to say she overruled and helped us with the last little bit of cleaning off the cars. I feel like she is ready to be done with this stuff and now go out and be productive, not locked in the house all day. Her cabin fever is somewhat infectious.

I managed to get everyone out to see the Chronicles of Narnia on Saturday. Before I get into the movie, I have one small rant I need to make. If you are coming with a gaggle of children and you want them to all sit together, do not, I repeat, do not show up to the movie 5 minutes after it has started on the opening weekend and expect to find 15 seats in the same row. Make up your mind and sit the kids down somewhere...have one parent sit with each group of kids. Two, buy a popcorn for each group. This eliminates the need for the children to get up every 20 minutes stomp up the stairs...rattle the row-end seats just to get their hands on more popcorn. Oh, and thirdly, make sure your kids go to the bathroom immediately prior to the start of the movie, no one wants to hear, MOMMY I NEED TO GO TO THE BATHROOM during the most critical part of the movie. Now that I have gotten the annoying 8 year old kids out of the way I think I can speak calmly on Narnia. It was in a word, breathtaking. Absolutely unbelievable. Think Lord of the Rings, but magical....mystical even. This is the first time in a while that I can say that I really found no major faults in the transformation from book to movie. There were some little things that i think didn't quite take place the way they envisioned it, but it was not bothersome at all. Go see it. The effects were outstanding. Mr. and Mrs. Beaver- exactly how I imagined them in the book, and that been married forever, can joke about everything relationship was perfect. Liam Neeson, the voice of Aslan....it took me the entire movie to figure out it was him. It all just fit. I think you will enjoy it.

What else can I say. Ummm some little life things have been unnerving lately. My friend (I'll call him that for the moment), made things very very awkward recently. He wants friendship....but also other things that i don't equate with....friends doing. So I left him with the ultimate statement- "Figure out what you want to be going on here, and figure out soon...cause I'm not going to deal with it." So I guess I'll soon be seeing how things play out, right now I'm just waiting-playing happy friend Resa. But that seems to be my life at the moment- happy friend Resa.

I could probably write on more things that are going on...but I have 3 stacks of labs that I haven't touched at all today...so I should probably get on that.

End Transmission.