Simple Joys

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

* Christmas joys.....brightly lit Christmas trees, singing Christmas carols, festive and joyful decorations, cards and letters, the Christmas story...Jesus, God who became man and lived among us, the One who came to give us Peace with God.

(My enthusiastic and encouraging friend of several decades, Ann, asked if I made our stockings and yes, many years ago I somehow found the time and fortitude to cross stitch all 6 of our stockings. My mom sewed them together for me and so I cross stitched one of her very own, too.)

Squirt is a big .... girl? No curly tail feathers leads me to believe he might actually be a she. Note her pretty white speckles on her neck.

* Ducks quacking at my fence wanting to be fed with Squirt leading the flock.

* My new handmade-by-my-husband headboard. I got an idea, my sweetie executed the idea, and it turned out fabulous!  (Picture coming soon.....maybe.)

* Cleaning out my closet because all my clothes are way too big!  (I'm at 35 pounds lost now.)

Two coyotes staring us down as I rolled my window down to take pictures.  Sure glad I was in the car! They seemed to find us almost as interesting as we found them to be.

* Random nature sightings around the 'burbs.

* Mike and I felt led to host a reunion of sorts for family who rarely sees each other and it went really well!! I can't believe we forgot to take pictures, but hopefully we are starting a new tradition.

The drive to church is one of my favorite things. It is fun and funny business. (One of the above children is a friend...just in case you are wondering where we picked up a 5th child.)

* A fajita date with my husband. It was preceded by a funeral, but sometimes sobering things like that make for the best conversations afterwards.

* Christmas sadness...yes, even sadness can be a joy.  Broken relationships, difficult people, memories of loved ones no longer with us, limitations of finances, physical ability, and time.  All these things seem to lurk in the back of my mind especially during this season.  But instead of it being depressing to me, it has made me realize all the more what Jesus has done for me. He has given me Hope, Joy, Love and Peace, but even more than those things, He has given me HIMSELF.  And that makes all the difference. 

A child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home:
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost—how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky's dome.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.

~G.K. Chesterton