Santa's Gonna Be A Little Late This Year...

 

Well, it was bound to happen eventually. In our 44 years of marriage, my husband Joe & I have always been able to celebrate Christmas with some branch of our family on December 25th. We've packed the boys up in their jammies in the middle of the night and driven to New Jersey to have Christmas with my parents and siblings... We've  gone over the river and through the woods to the Moore family farm in Virginia to celebrate with Joe's kin... We've had Christmas at our house with excited little boys who got up waaaay too early in the morning to open presents... and we've had Christmas in the mountains of North Carolina with our now grown sons and their families (including our brand new grandbaby!).

But sometime mid-November, Joe & I got out our calendars and realized that for Christmas 2023, we'd be home alone for the very first time.

It turned out that this is my oldest son & his family's year to head south to Florida for Christmas with my daughter-in-laws' family... and my youngest son and his partner had made plans to celebrate Christmas day with her Mom & Dad in Eastern North Carolina.

OK, no problem. We just needed to set expectations and come up with a fun Plan B for Christmas day. We thought about going for a hike with our dog Jake, or volunteering at the local homeless shelter. We had all kinds of options that might be possibilities...

...and then I came down with a doozy of a case of bronchitis & walking pneumonia. *cough cough*

So now we're on to Plan C, which includes staying home from Christmas Eve service at our church, snuggling up on the couch and watching football & movies together, drinking more French Vanilla tea with honey than I ever imagined I could, and waiting for the antibiotics and steroids to kick in. While I wait, I've been having fun creating some Christmas doodles in my sketchbook, reading a fun mystery series, and crocheting hats for little noggins for World Vision. Oh, and eating too many Christmas cookies that my husband baked!

Plan C also includes bumping our Christmas celebration to the following weekend when we'll be opening presents with my youngest son and his family.

Not the Christmas we had planned, but I'm oh so grateful for an understanding husband, wise doctors, improving health and the unexpectedly restful pre-Christmas season we've been given.

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!!

An Unexpected Snow Holiday

"Snowbound" ACEO

Here in the Piedmont of North Carolina where I live, we don't often get major winter snow storms... but last week, Winter Storm Jonas paid us a visit, leaving behind more sleet than snow. My husband & I were thankful that our power stayed on and that we had plenty of food in the house. After checking to be sure that our parents & grown kids were safe & warm, we settled in 'til the snow melted. And so, being the introverts that we both are, we each dove into the books we'd been wanting to read & the creative projects around the house we'd been waiting to do... loving this unexpected Snow Holiday in our quiet home.

Back2Nature

"Back2Nature"

My husband & two grown sons are in the process of preparing for a major hiking/camping adventure (I love that they want to spend time together this way!). The trip itself will hopefully be in the summer of 2014... but in the meantime, there is research to be done about the trail, camp-y things to plan, & lots of equipment to gather... My husband is savoring every bit of the process!

My family teases me, saying I love the IDEA of nature better than the REALITY of nature (read here... not a fan of snakes, spiders, mosquitoes & sleeping on the ground). Vacation-wise, I'm more of a cottage-lover. Give me indoor plumbing, a porch with a rocking chair and the sights & sounds of the great outdoors, a camera, my journal & sketchbook, a coffee maker, simple healthy foods, a good book, the company of family & our sweet dog Winnie, a nice clean bed at night... and I'm a happy camper!

My Recent Rx for Creative Block

There's a funny thing about my Creative Blocks... No matter how hard I try to push those big old blocks aside, they just won't budge! And that's just what I found this month as I sat down to update my blog... I was completely at a loss about what to write.

Now normally, my tendency would be to press on, hoping that inspiration would magically reappear. But this time was different...

This time I got busy!

I am NOT at all excited about house cleaning (or cooking either, for that matter!). But since I was getting nowhere with my writing efforts, I jumped into cleaning my studio & "This Old House." It felt good to chase some of the dust bunnies away that had multiplied during the winter months.

My wintertime reading had been James Herriot's book, All Creatures Great and Small. I enjoyed traveling around the English countryside "with him" so much as he cared for the animals & the farm people there, that I immersed myself in his second book All Things Bright and Beautiful ... Nothing like a trip to faraway places (even if only in book form!) to bring new inspiration to me.

And since it's been so pretty outside...

...I've spent extra time enjoying the newness of Spring in our neighborhood. I must say, though I'm not a photographer at all, I've had so much fun capturing pics with my new phone camera as I've walked our lab Winnie on the block each day!

Taking pics has really challenged me to see with fresh eyes... There are interesting things, inspiration & beauty around me everyday!

So... Yet another lesson learned for me about being a creative person... Sometimes it's best to put my project aside for a while & let my creative brain gain some fresh perspective.

Thank you so much Lord for "wiring" me to be a creative person. Please help me to honor You while I allow creativity to grow in me.