Family, it seems, takes even longer to bounce back from than my last ten years of teaching. But the winsome gentleman who's already outgrown these pictures may have made the critical difference. Jacob is six now, he informed me, so I have a lot of grandmothering to catch up on. Not to mention mothering, which I'm still not ready for even yet. But now at least I want to try.

This past Christmas 2005, or rather Twelfth Night 2006 - hit the sales, avoid the traffic and the mush, I determined to visit the whole family: mother in Tyler Hill PA, son Michael and wife and stepdaughter in Naugatuck CT, and daughter Maggie and husband and son in West Wareham MA. And Jacob did me in. I am now hopelessly happily Grandmother. No idea what to do about it, but it feels good.

but some things don't change ... as much, anyway.

Maggie Dunbar Juneau