December 2009

I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I certainly have enjoyed everyone comments on my blog and thank you all for dropping by. I must say that I have also enjoyed reading your blogs and it’s made it an interesting year. I am glad to have so many people who have the same interests as I and it’s been all good so far. I hope the next year goes as well!!

The list of people that I need to buy gifts for seems almost endless. I was able to do some shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend and was happy to get some of it done, but there always seems to be a few people that are very hard to shop for. My mom is always a problem. She lives in Florida and has been retired for years. She has just about everything you can imagine in her condo and doesn’t really even have room for anything more.

I think we got her some gift cards last year and that was good, but the gift card thing must be getting old for her. Since we only visit a couple of times a year, it’s hard to know what she may need. When we ask her, she has very few ideas herself. I think I’ll try the bookstore and maybe I can find something there.

Once again, we are saddened to hear about another tradition that is coming to an end. This time it is the famous Orient Express train service that ran from Paris to Istanbul. After being established in the 1880’s, the service has provided people with transportation and mystery. One famous book that was based on the train is Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express”. Another of its famous passengers was Van Helsing who rode off to battle Dracula. I am sorry to hear about the demise of the service, but am glad that it will always be remembered.

The power of Mother Nature has always intrigued me. Once again she has shown her skills. Scientist ran tests on turtles in order to see if they could change the color of their shells in order to blend in with their environment. The experiments were a success and it has been proven that turtles can change their colors just like other animals such as chameleons. It’s always a wonder to me how Mother Nature can take care of her own!