Outside the window--sunshine!!!!  Blue skies and clouds.  The branches blowing gently in the breeze.  

We got a call from Rain and R.  They were coming into town for Em's party.  We met for brunch at La Peep.  I came a bit late so I could finish cooking a dish I made for Em's party.  Luke went ahead to get a table and visit with Rain and the kids.  R dropped Rocky off at our house,  and he brought me to La Peep.  At the Peep,  I could see X waving at me from the restaurant window.  Inside,  I walked up to the table and there sat Rain and Violetta eating.  A cute little kid munching on toast.  Xavier brought his family of super heros.  He loves to make up stories about the action figures.  And Papa was enjoying the family scene.  

The scrambled eggs were remarkably good.  And the coffee was good too.  I played with Xavier,

and the action figures.  Today Superman and Batman had to marry wonder woman--because X 

only has one woman action figure.  

Work was fun as usual.  Matt and I laughed over the script I wrote for the NM After Christmas party.  We always laugh and have fun.  

There was a lot of food at the party.  Even though they had just returned from their trip,  Bobby spent the day cooking his amazing pizzas.  There was salad and my two dishes (I finally learned to use my oven.  Yay me!!)  and piles of sweets.  I was sooo good on my diet.  I had one bite of the candy pretzel and gave the rest to Luke and I had a smidge of Rain's amazing chocolate chip cookies.  My fav cookies are chocolate chippers with lots of chocolate and walnuts.  Well,  sometimes walnuts.  I didn't look at the candy.  Well,  I did look at the candies just to see them,  but from the distance of a few feet.  I like the one's with gooey,  soft centers.  But I thought of Ruby and walked on.

Ruby is a woman with her own t.v. show.  She used to weight over 700 lbs.  Now she weighs -- I think it's --400 lbs.   The show is about her struggle to achieve a normal weight.  So if she can sit at a table with her family and friends while they are eating pizza and eat this awful stuff they give her instead--I can walk by the candy.  It happens that I really like chocolate candy but . . .  I want to be slender more.  

I forgot that I brought my own diet sweets for dessert.  I do actually like this treat.  It's only 100 calories.  It's a bag of little,  crunchy nicely spiced oatmeal cookies.  They're nice with a warm drink.  There's something about the flavor of the spices mixed with oatmeal (my fav creal grain) that is yummy.  Xavier has shared some with me and said that he liked them.  

Which reminds me that I was also excellent at Rain's party.  Her mom-in-law made this amazing strawberry cake with creamy,  sweet icing.  Strawberry is my fav flavor for cake.  I did have a tiny bit and a very few crumbs of it,  but I DID NOT EAT A SLICE as I would have liked to do.  Talking about miracles.  This is the first Christmas that I didn't take advantage of the holiday season to eat myself into weight gain.  The very first.  Good girl,  Willow!!! If I have to say so myself.

Another miraculous happening.  E came to sit with me.  He invited me to share his search for a dog and to see pictures of the giant fish he saw on his Christmas trip.  One of the fish a huge black Manta Ray kind of scared me.  But his whole adventure at this aquarium sounded fun.  There's another scary fish called a box fish.  It's beautiful but if you should even touch it with one finger you would die.  It's that poisonous.  We are going to his basketball game tomorrow.  I'm excited.