Keep those cards and letters coming

News today is pretty good on the Justin front.  Apparently he still looks like hell and is in a lot of pain, but the prognosis is good.  They haven't had to do any surgery on his head, which is nice.  they haven't done another MRI and we don't know yet what the extent of damage to his neck and shoulder are.  There's some spot of some sort on his spine.  Again, don't know what.  But he's stabilizing, and that will make it easier to keep on.  Thanks for your good wishes and prayers.  Keep 'em coming.

In other news, we had a Solstice party today.  It was our three neighborhood families, our bonfire buddies.  We had a potluck, I made latkes.  I made a spiral path in the yard out of evergreen branches and dried corn stalks.  In the center, I had lighted candles.  Each child walked the spiral with an unlighted candle.  In the center, the child lit her candle and then walked back out of the spiral, placing her candle somewhere along the path.  I told the story of Persephone and talked about what the Solstice means.  We talked about bringing your light into the world in a time of dark and cold.  It was really pretty.  Lara gave each child a special stone along with a wish for him or her.  It was hokey and Steve and Andrew kept cracking me up with comments along the lines of "When can we sacrifice the goat?" but it was nice to bring our families together for a little ceremony given how different the beliefs from which we come.  I'm always so ritual-averse, but I'm trying not to pass it on. :O)