There are ghosts in my house tonight. Not visible. Not haunting. Not frightening. But there are ghosts...ghost voices of those I love filling up the rooms of this old house. For a full week, there was nonstop chatter and movement and activity...for a full week, the beds were full..the seats at the dining room table were full. One by one, they have packed up and headed home...Portland, Oregon...St. Pete, Florida...even Aaron and his family two streets over have decided to stay home. I am left with a refrigerator of leftovers...a mound of dirty towels and sheets...and some items still hidden away that I just can't find.

I am also left with Philip. He will stay another two weeks so the transition is so much easier with him here...until he leaves. We have entertained for breakfast, for Italian night (there were 25 for that dinner) and on and on.....by Thanksgiving morning we decided to take a break and spent the afternoon at the movies...our Thanksgiving dinner...a large popcorn with free refills. It was a perfect way to spend our afternoon. We had several invitations, but with the boys all going to their Dad's, we took advantage of quiet time. We walked through the snow swept town and returned home after dark weaving our pathway as we followed the snow plow and the newly turned on Christmas lights. It was a very unusual way to spend Thanksgivng afternoon....but Philip and I, neither one, are traditionalists.

Abe and Kristin surprised everyone with a flight from Portland. I loved having all of my sons and their wives here. Thank you for coming home.

After putting the house back together this morning, Philip and I spent the rest of the day helping Rachael and David move their coffeeshop. They purchased a building across the square in downtown Angola and this is their moving week end. We carried and hauled load after load across the square...some things in a truck...other things we pushed across the street on a large cart. This was done through the pouring rain. Philip is always amazed that our traffic around the circle stops for pedestrians...and it is a good thing as we didn't have time to look for traffic or the ability to slow that cart down once we had it rolling!

With everyone back home and the house quieting down...it is time to turn attention to the coming of December. There are scarves to be knit....presents to wrap...winter dishes to take out of storage....the hanging of the wreath...the bracing for winter (which appears to be here already!)

It is good Philip is here...we like spending these nights before the Solstice reading in my quiet house with a lovely glass of red wine...talking about the day...sharing dinner by candlelight.

No poems tonight. I would like to share with you a book that I dearly love (have read it many times)...Winter by Rick Bass. It is a wonderful read for a cold winter's night. I am reading Historian right now by Elizabeth Kostova.
It is an excellent read for Christmas. If any of you want to send me a favorite book or two (or three) I will compile of list from my readers and include it next weeks in the Passage. It might be fun to see what all of you recommend for Holiday gift giving.

My blog site is up and running (thank you, Brock!) so make sure you check it out....www.louannhoman.com, click on daily journal.

So here is hoping you get your houses back together after visitors or your own travel...and that candles burn brightly as you read away these nights before the Solstice.

Love to all,
Lou Ann