We're certainly blessed with a wonderful family. There were 16 of us at dinner last night, although Cassandra travels with her own meals. We had a room by ourselves and could move around easily to visit. Lily brought coloring materials, so she and Tess had fun bringing color to pictures of princesses and castles. Dinner took close to three hours, pushing us past the closing time of the skating rink. No one seemed terribly upset. We were tired and full and happy and ready to go home. Even though the game of pick-up-sticks ended with some hurt feelings among the younger set, everyone said that the evening was good.

Just before we went out to dinner, we received a call from our dear friends, Dan and Gay. Their calls and visits are always tonics for our souls. We met them nearly when we lived in Hudson. They were graduate students at BU School of Theology and worked as associate pastors at the Methodist church we attended. After completing their studies, they returned to Illinois, where they served a succession of churches, as is the Methodist tradition. They adopted four (!) children. One of the children, KC, died suddenly in 1999 of a undetected heart ailment; it was the summer before he was to start college. Currently Dan and Gay are in Champaign, where she is a chaplain at a youth shelter and he is music minister at a local church.

And just before the phone call, BPF (our bi-polar friend) stopped by to see Sandra's parents. She wanted them to come see her newly-painted mud room. It was her second visit of the day. On the first visit, she brought box of Valentine chocolates with some of the chocolates gone. The metal box is heart-shaped with a picture of Elvis on it.

While we're shoveling a half foot of snow, the full squad reports to Red Sox spring training tomorrow.

It looks like the hockey season is really not going to happen, for sure, definitely. Even though the games have been canceled, that doesn't mean that all of the traditions must vanish.