First and foremost Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours. I don’t send cards but for those of you that did I appreciate the licking of stamps and the execution on some very nice card concepts. The best by far was Rebecca’s which I’ll have to scan in but it depicted her two gorgeous kids surrounded by empty liquor bottles with the tag line, “May the spirits of the season surround you”. Brought tears to her mother in laws eyes and not in a good way if you know what I mean. Pure genius.

Had dinner down in Hanover, NH with the family. It was tough to see my Gram who is fading fast. Alzheimer’s in many ways is the cruelest of diseases. She is the last living grandparent I have and I’m fortunate to have many fantastic memories of her that I’ll get to keep.

Top 3:

1. Getting caught by her eating my second piece of blueberry pie on the ferry to Prince Edward Island.
2. I spent many summers here in VT as I child and she would take me to the state house where she would advocate as a citizen on various issues of the day. I learned a lot from watching her but mostly that you need to show up and be heard.
3. Walking. Grammy Ruth loved to walk. Every night after dinner. Through the neighborhood where she knew and said hello to everyone by name and as we went around she would ask me questions like, Who are you going to vote for in the presidential election? Which for an eight or nine year old meant a lot as no one else cared much about my 2 cents. But Grammy Ruth always did and always took the time to ask.