13 | January | 2024 | Clutch Cargo Lips

I’ve finally gotten back to going through stuff in the attic. Today I looked at a small book of photos that came from Mom’s house.

This contained mostly photos of women at a beach wearing nothing above the waist, and sometimes nothing below it either. There were a few of Jack and Joan and a couple of Mom. There were none of Dad — so either he was taking the photos or didn’t leave the ship.

They went on a cruise in January 1993. They were on the cruise when Andrew was born, that’s how I know the month and year. That was the cruise that pushed Dad over the edge of alcoholism. He was never the same after that.

Mom told me a story about a woman selling her some clothes that Mom didn’t really want to buy. Apparently the woman was really pushy. I think some of these photos show her. I don’t think this is what she bought though.

Mom was younger than I am now. She was just shy of 57 years old. She looks pretty good for 57.

I just finished putting Every. Last. Item. related to Christmas back in the knee-wall. That’s not saying the attic is presentable, it just means that the Christmas stuff is put away.

Our decorations were kept to a minimum this year. We did put up a tree and hung our (okay, my) favorite ornaments on it. We didn’t decorate the other rooms too much, although this year I did force some paperwhites to bloom during the holidays. They are still going — one bud has not opened yet. And of course we brought out the kissing Clauses. I also decorated my Monkey Puzzle Tree.

Really glad the holidays are over, but they were manageable this year. We were lucky that Clare came out for Christmas and we were able to spend some time with her even though she was not feeling 100% most of the time.