Wonderfully Made

Hello and Happy Christmas to you!

While this is a most joyous and celebratory time of year, I must confess that I've not had joyous and celebratory words to share for the past few weeks. Yes, it's Christmas, and that in itself is a gift and a blessing for which I'm eternally grateful. We have spent time with important family and that's been pretty cool, too.

With the recent events in the news of late...Sandyhook families and our more local firefighter tragedy, it has been hard to put together words that meant much of anything...especially as it relates to making stuff and sharing gifts and baking goodies and my fashion of the moment. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has had a sort of glum skimming over the top of what is other wise such a joyful time.

JR was away for a few weeks before Christmas. I certainly kept busy during that time...shopping and wrapping, and finishing those dang nightgown sets! We celebrated Henry's One Year birthday...

 And, while JR was away, I was robbed of packages that were delivered to my porch. Well, that gave me a whole new level of freak out and I wasn't much in the mood to share an awful lot about what was going on in my home and life. Well, all that got resolved, but it still left me with a sense of violation? Unease? I'm not quite sure how to describe it.  More than anything I wanted to rejoin my husband in Chicago while at the same time, more than anything I wanted to protect our home. I hated to leave it unattended! But with good neighbors and family, I was somewhat settled to get on that plane and GO.

The day of departure, flights were cancelled, but I was able to re-book and get on one of the last planes to leave Buffalo for Chicago. And that was  after I started my morning by rescuing a hawk from my porch in my pajamas!

That's right...a hawk rescue.  His flight plan was disrupted when he flew straight through our porch and into the glass window wind break at the opposite end. With my bare hands, I was able to corner him, gently subdue his wings and carry him to the open side of the porch and watch him fly off. It was pretty cool.

When I arrived in Chicago, we pretty much stayed put at Amelia's house since the weather took a windy shift. But it was relaxing and enjoyable to spend that time watching Christmas movies and playing with Jameson. I did a little exploration of my favorite shops in Glenn Ellyn, though and started a collection of my new obsession:

Glitter Houses!

From there, we drove to Grand Rapids and touched base with our Michigan family, where we crashed for the night before driving back to WNY on Christmas Eve morning.

We got home that evening just in time to unload the truck and head to Meghan's house to share the rest of the night with my kids and all the grandbabies...except for Ben, who is away at work this Christmas. We'll be having another family event next week when he's home for a few days.

Christmas day found JR and I home, settled in to a day of doing nothing. We didn't have groceries in the house since we had just gotten in the night before. So, with three eggs, a few cooked potatoes and sausage from the freezer, I made up a delicious Christmas scramble plate and homemade buttermilk biscuits (Thank you Pioneer Woman!)  using powdered buttermilk from the panty. They were about the best batch of biscuits I've ever made!

We ate dinner at Denny's with the other Christmas Dinner rejects!  But all in all, it was so very good to be home at last, sleeping in the same bed...our own bed, and contemplating the many blessings that we enjoy each day. It is truly Chrismas each day in our lives when I think of it. Our family, each other, health, the comfort of home, warmth and provision. Given the state of many families this year, I'd say that's a pretty good way to think about our circumstances.

So, this week, I'm already looking forward once again to Friday since I've had to be very concentrated and focused to get a week's worth of stuff done in three days....the deadlines didn't adjust for Christmas and New Year's!

So there's my holiday story... Merry Christmas, my friends.