I cried yesterday. →[More:]I'm up in Columbus with Marie, George's other sister, for a couple of days (yay, fast internet!) and yesterday we went to a friend of hers for a cookie-baking party.

It was wonderful. There was the grandma, some of her daughters and daughters-in-law (she has 9 kids), grandchildren and me. The guys watched sport and the younger kids played with the dogs.

We baked cookies (I made mint-chocolate ones, mmmmm) and made buckeyes and snickerdodles. The grandma asked me if we did this at home. That was when I cried. We never did anything like that when I was a kid. My dad drank. There were no 'family traditions' at Christmas, apart from 'try not to upset dad'. No-one visited, no-one invited us anywhere.

So for me to be involved in this, my first ever family Christmas, is the most wonderful gift I could have.

I am blessed.