Elena 
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1. I put something on eBay this week. This is the first time since my mom died that I have ventured back into selling. Part of that is because I was so busy, but part of it was because of the bad experience we had on eBay back in May and June. But we decided that it would be nice to sell something for extra Christmas cash and so we are selling an oboe. Ebay seems like a much different place. A year ago we would have had over 100 visitors with maybe 15 to 20 people watching and possibly even a bid or two. But this year we’ve only had 27 visits so far and only one person watching. The guy who runs the storage facility where I have a lot of mom’s things told me that he stopped selling on eBay altogether. He just wasn’t moving anything. I wonder if the economy is going to put an end to eBay? as if their own stupid policies weren’t enough.
2. SLO had a port put in her arm last week. This is for her chemotherapy. It’s been bothering her ever since she got it but yesterday hear arm looked larger than the other one, purplish and a little warm. So we went over to the vascular center to have it checked out. Five minutes later they told us this was “normal.” I guess that’s subjective.
3. Sam got the results of the PSAT test back and they weren’t good. This absolutely surprised me because he took the PLAN test last spring and did great! But PSAT is for the SAT and college board and the PLAN test is for the ACT and maybe this gives us a clue in what direction we should be heading. Sam was really upset. But on researching it, there really different philosophies and strategies for the two companies and since most of the colleges around here seem to accept either, I think we will concentrate our efforts on the ACT. Blog post on that next week!
4. I am shopping for the girls and Calvin. Mr. Pete is buying for the boys and one boyish gift for Izzy that she asked for. We are almost done with Christmas shopping. I am so glad. Our gifts to them were practical but I think they will also be pleased. I was really inspired by Regina’s post on Christmas presents although I didn’t get an early enough start to be all of that. Maybe next year.
5. I still have to order Christmas cards. Why am I dragging my feet on that…
6. Well, it’s because I give myself the actual 12 days of Christmas to send them out! They are Christmas cards, not Advent cards – so theoretically I still have plenty of time!
7. If you’ve been reading my “Dearest Daughter”series of letters, you’ll know that 51 years ago this month, my pregnant mother came home from New Mexico to visit her mother. And they were all excited about the new little baby that was coming – me!! This has been haunting me all week. Did I live up to the promise and expectations? Was my birth everything they hoped? I dunno. About 27 months later my mom came home again, pregnant again and with a toddler. That time she stayed and her marriage remained in tatters until the 1990s. My sister and I have ambivalent feelings about my father and I am so surprised to read the nice things my grandma wrote about him, knowing that the awful things she would say about him in my ears within the next dozen years or so. I am also struck by the changes in that half of a century. My grandmother and mother both gone – a lot of the people that grandma mentions in her letters are also gone. The hoped-for baby is a middle aged mother of 6. And as I approach my 51st Christmas I feel a sense of urgency and unrest. How many Christmases left – will I ever get “it” right?
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