Did you see the sunset last night?

Made the whole day worth it.

(I took a blurry picture of it for you. Your welcome.)

By the other end of yesterday things had gotten better.

The Amazon had been downgraded to a small overgrown garden, Savannah survived her first orthodontic visit, I vacuumed through the house and registered for a writing class at our local community college, and (joy of joys) everyone returned home.

After family home evening and kisses and tucks and warnings and finally threatenings, it was just David and me on the couch. He was half-watching the Fiesta Bowl and half-cheering for both teams and half-telling me about his day. I was half-listening and half-reading my book. We kissed and put the day to bed.

And as I drifted off, a small begrudging thought from CIM acknowledged how good normal life can be.

And so now it is almost too late for this: one last look back at the holiday. Even worse, I'm sure it will only seem mawkishly indulgent to all of you who didn't actually live it with us. Oh well. You can just close your eyes and listen to Adele sing. Even with your eyes closed it could be the best five minutes of your entire day. That girl has brilliant vocal chords.

You will have to imagine the hours we spent around the table playing games, as somehow I forgot to film that part and also the hours David and I spent shopping together as we are not famous enough yet to have a documentary film crew follow us around. (Maybe next year. I have a good feeling about 2010.) Those were a couple of my favorite parts.

And now, our holiday set to Adele's live recording of Make You Feel My Love. It was just about as magical as it looks.