Thanks to everyone (including two first-time commenters, woo!) on the nice comments about the quilt. It is some of my favorite colors. I wonder if a person does a better job on things like that when they are colors that the person particularly likes.

First exam is done and graded. Second exam is today, but as it's a class of 7 students, grading won't take long. And then I'm going to come home and relax, I think. They're predicting storms and possibly a mix of snow and rain later today, so I think being home will just be preferable.

This time next week I will be somewhere south of St. Louis (hopefully close, if the train is on time it's supposed to get there like 7:30 am). This semester really flew by but at the same time it seemed long.

Last night was another one of those Christmas things...it was the CWF Christmas party. We get together at one woman's house, she cooks the main dish, everyone else brings side dishes. The running joke is that every year there is an overabundance of one thing and few of others...and the next year the balance changes. This year there were lots of salads and only three different desserts and two vegetables. (So next year, I should make a salad, because probably everyone else will do vegetables).

We used to do a white-elephant gift exchange but we dropped that this year; I'm just as glad, while it was fun most of the gifts were of the un-useful kind and it did take up a lot of time. Instead, we collected the gifts for the Crisis Center and then, after dinner, one person played the piano and we all sat around and sang Christmas carols.

And it's funny. I make a big show of being anti-social (and in some respects, I kind of am - I am not the kind of person who needs lots of people to go out to lunch with or go shopping with; I tend to be just as happy doing things like that on my own), but still it's nice to have a group of people to get together with and just spend some time with once in a while. I suppose most people have groups like this, whether they are faith-related groups, or groups related to a certain interest (as much as I've said I wished there was a stitching group here, I don't know if I'd have time to attend regularly) or something like MOPS for stay at home moms, something where you can meet regularly and spend time with people who have at least one interest in common with you. In a way, it's less "scary" of a social situation than some, because you know in advance that you will share at least one interest with the other people.

(I don't do well in totally open-ended social situations. Unlike some people, I can't just go out to a club or something and expect to feel like I fit in)

So anyway - another wish from me - I hope you have at least one group you can get together with, where you can laugh and share food and maybe do a little good for other people. While I don't necessarily think it's healthy to be overscheduled to the point of having to go out every night in the week, or to have so many friends that you never take time to be quiet and reflective on your own, I do think it's good to have sort of an extended family of people - people you know, some of whom are friends, some of whom may be more friendly acquaintances, that you meet with periodically to talk about both the big and little things of life with.