I have just finished writing our annual holiday letter to friends, and we will spend this snowy weekend getting our holiday cards addressed and mailed. It's often the only contact we have with some friends, I'm ashamed to admit. but after I finished the letter and printed it out it occurred to me that I have another set of friends, you - my virtual friends, whose real names and addresses I don't have. So, I'm publishing the letter here in this journal. I don't know if anyone ever visits, if this letter will get read by any of you for whom I will always keep a fond place in my heart. So many of you were so kind during the immediate time of grief and pain of my sister's death, which I could share here in a way I really couldn't with friends at a distance. Strange, but true. Talking, either in person or by telephone was impossible, and letter or email writing was almost as hard. Things are better, as you will seefrom the letter, but though grief is no longer my constant companion, it is never far below the surface. The baby I mention, and whose photo I have inserted, is my sister's grand-daughter, such a spark of grace and wonder in our lives. In the letter I use our names: I am Mary Ellen, and my partner is Gail.
Dear Friends:
We are happy to begin by saying that 2007 was a far better year for us than its predecessor. It was, in fact, a year of many enjoyable events. The winter was a big surprise, as we had been led to believe that we would not experience serious snow here in the Rio Grande Valley. As there is no longer any way to say “never” or “always” about weather anywhere, we will all have to get used to weather surprises, like our “fifty-year event” of multiple blizzards, snow piled on our flat roof, and us without a snow shovel! In which straits we were not alone…there was not asnow shovel to be found in the city. We ordered one online from Vermont Country Store and felt quite smug.
We had many delightful visits with both families throughout the spring and summer. Then, in August Mary Ellen pulled herself together sufficiently to trot her resumé around the town, and as a result had two part-time ESL teaching positions during the fall semester. She loved them both, but is taking on more work with UNM for the coming term, dropping the Catholic Charities class. Gail continues to work for the Jewish Community Center’s childcare center, although in the new year she plans to cut down somewhat on her hours.
We returned to the Mid-Atlantic in October, to attend a family wedding in PA, then for a week in Delaware visiting friends, as well as our favorite beaches, birding spots and seafood restaurants. In November we took another short saltwater vacation on the Texas Gulf coast, for more beachwalking, birding and seafood. Gail wants you to know that our excursion in a boat called The Skimmer (birding by birders for birders) out into the waters off Aransas National Wildlife Refuge to see the whooping cranes (and many many other birds we never even expected) was the highlight of her year. It was pretty close to the top for Mary Ellen also, but she’d have to assign highlight of the year to the 
