A Christmas Eve Letter to my Neighbor who is Visiting Family in St. Louis

Dear Maggie, 

We got more snow and a bit of freezing rain this morning; not as much as predicted but enough to keep me from venturing out. 

So I spent the past half-hour finishing my building.

Your what?

My building.

When Sherry’s kids were very young, they were fascinated by our fireplace. And somehow — please do not ask me how because I have no recollection — they were amused by taking some of the multitudinous boxes lying around, and turning them into buildings, and then gently placing them into the fire and watching them burn. How this fits into the spirit of Christmas escapes ALL of us, and yet they continue year after year. They are now 18 and 16. They make their buildings at home and bring them here. It’s known as The Conflagration and occurs AFTER dinner. 

This will be my first year as other than a spectator. As a rookie participant, my creation is on the primitive side. Joe (another newbie but with vast experience in architectural design) is working on his; prolly it will be a bit more polished than mine.

Attached are photos of my interior and exterior. It’s likely that you’ll be the only person outside this house who will see them. 

And typing that, it occurs to me that this story COULD develop into a blog post. Let’s hope my better judgment prevails.

Love and Peace to you and Carlos and the Rest Of Them,

Nancy