Holiday season in full swing

I love the holidays, nowadays. For the last several years I hated the holidays. Families, parties, getting together. Great when the family is all in one place. The kids are home and we're all just hanging out and having time together. Gradually, it has returned to this wonderful family time. This is the first holiday that I don't feel that deep down angst, that missing part of myself with my husband gone. This will be the 4th holiday without him. And I feel okay. I feel really good. I was invited by friends to a dinner at a nice restaurant tonight. There was about 16 of us. Had a really nice time, despite the service being very, very sloooooooow. Took 3 hours to get dinner and then finally the bill. They were not even busy in the restaurant. Had a good time, though, and my youngest went with me, though he didn't sit with me. At 10, I went fifteen miles to a birthday party I'd been invited too also. It was rather interesting. My friend turned 60 and her theme was 60's style hippie party since she was a flower child back then. Woodstock, NY is the perfect place to hold such a gathering, and she lives in Woodstock. And yes, there were flower children everywhere. I actually ran into a guy, Al, who I took dance lessons with in October. So we chatted for a few minutes. I stayed an hour because of the drive back, and it was beginning to snow down there and by the time I arrived home, the snow was sticking to the road. We're expecting a northeaster...so here it is 12:30 and I'm checking email. Feeling very good about my life and all the wonderful things I have to be thankful for. I have plenty too. I feel very fortunate. Now I'm just waiting eagerly for the next part of my life to move a bit faster and pick up momentum. I know it's coming.

I also received an email out of the blue from a man I went out with two times, over two years ago. I didn't hear anything from him and then suddenly 8 months after we stopped dating, he called me Christmas Eve. He wanted to know if I'd like to go out with him. Told him he was a nice fellow, but no thank you. So fast forward a year later, he emails me out of the blue and wished me merry christmas. That was nice, but unusual, considering....