The Rejected Christmas Letter Vignettes

I have published two of the vignettes in a Christmas Letter that was never mailed. All three of these were dreamed up in the middle of the night, a time when I do my best thinking...I usually have to get up and start typing.
III. They had it all worked out before the time arrived. Careful planning with their financial advisor, a list of priorities and pitfalls arduously debated, penned and edited time and time again, and the melding of two calendars into one. A case of wine added interest to the long discussions of how it was going to be and how it was NOT going to be. He would do the yard, and she would "take back" the house which he had run for the past five years. He would fish and golf at least twice a week and she would have coffee with her daughter. She fained a weak back, so he agreed to continue to push the vacuum. They would travel when the stock market treated them well and they would huddle by the fire (providing it was a low particulate day) when the bear reared it's ugly head that year. She would paint, sew, design jewelry...dust off that keyboard. 'Maybe I'll write a book' she mused...but then, what to write? 'I need to finish my Christmas shopping and order those adorable shoes I saw in the Internet...and I should finish designing my blog'. But it was a low particulate day, so she sat by the fire and sipped a nice cab. Ahhhh...retirement.