Happy New Year

For years, I had wished for a yard art spinning sculpture that was like one in front of the Kingsport Public Library.  This year, Alan was able to find one so similar, I was absolutely thrilled.  We both love to watch it spin in the wind in the back yard.  It is my favorite Christmas present.  The video shows that I will never be an actress, but you can see the sculpture in action.

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday.  Alan's sisters and their families were here, so we had a great time.  The family is getting larger; Brian and Andy brought their fiancees with them.  Both Amy and Sarah are fantastic additions, and it was so good to be able to get to know them better.  We left up the tree until today because it was so beautiful.  It is always sad when we take it down.

I ended up getting the type A flu, despite having had the flu shot.  I am still coughing and extremely tired all the time, but am slowly recovering.  While sick in bed, I read an amazing book: Behind the Beautiful Forevers --  Life, death, and hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo.  Yes, her name is "Boo."  The book was on the New York Times Best Books of 2012 list, and it was definitely worth reading--although it isn't happy reading.  It is a nonfiction narrative of the lives of people living in a Mumbai, India slum.  The author, who is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter who used to be at the Washington Post,  did two years of interviews and wrote this incredible saga of what the people did, and do, to survive.  It will make you very happy for the fortune of where you happened to be born.