36. 37. 38. The Long Winter (335 pp) , Little Town on the Prairie (307 pp) and These Happy Golden Years (289 pp) by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Dec 25-26). I decided to pull out The Long Winter to be ironic. Maybe if I read about people who had to crack the ice off their bed before they got out of it in the morning would make me stop feeling sorry for myself. I don't really feel sorry for myself. The weather is a bit tedious but I'm not unhappy.

Once I read that one I wanted to read the part where Laura and Almanzo fall in love. I'm such a sucker for romance. Why is that?

I used to pick and read these books on a fairly regular basis but now it's been years and years. It was fun to re-read and also to get wrapped in a story that didn't need a lot of concentration. Man, those people worked hard. A fun day was doing all the laundry and ironing without any machines. I laughed every time Ma complained about how she hated those savage Indians. But she sure like settling the land that was stolen from them.