I slept until after 8 this morning and Cameron came in my room to see if I was okay. I just overslept more so because I'm here. I love Merri and Albert's Christmas tree. Janet sent it right after I asked in our weekly talk. The tree was chopped down right out of the woods and dragged several miles through the mountains on some sort of rig.

I got caught up on Leslie and Sam (that King boy) since I've been down here. Jeff, her older son, left on December 1 for a year in Afghanistan. His family will stay in the Seattle area. Chase, her other son, is back east right now but will be coming through December 15 and probably stay in Springfield for a short while and then he will go to Africa and after that Ghana. He assures Leslie he will be safe. He's a photographer and has done an internship which is what Chase is doing. I'm eager for them to meet.

Sam has to have a knee replaced next week. I don't know how long he will have to be off work but I hope they can get up here and he can perhaps do some fishing. I've seen two fishing boats out this morning so they may be biting.