Manic Busy Season is over.....?

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At least the one that is the holiday season, anyhow.

We've had snow a few times.





And strange visitors were coming in from the cold...





Someone has been giving a Clint Eastwood imitation with a blanket I made into a poncho for my dad...





Someone got his head shaved in the wee hours of the morning after a party...





With friends...





...who love posing with Pirouette cookies...





...In support of a friend who is undergoing chemo.





ooooooh.... shiny!





An annual Tacky Party.





An annual Gingerbread House Building Party. I'm not going to hide it. Ours had significant structural problems...





But so did others'...





We had our Christmas Ball. What fun! Caroling at the old Inn...





I better make that night a whole separate post. You've all trudged through my sewing for months, and you deserve better than a single photo of the evening!

So there are a few highlights.

We have been home for the majority of days the last week, and doing homey type things.

Well, sort of. We were gone for 10 hours today on a cleaning job, for which we are very grateful. Despite the season of ho-ho-ho, we still get people wanting money in the mail box-box-box.

We began the month with the mutual decision to not have any gifts this year at all. We were actually sort of looking forward to the novelty of it, and wondering what we were going to do - not doing gifts and not having much in the way of family activities. We were going to see about spending the Christmas holiday doing some sort of service work.

However, the generosity of people in our family and in our church made this Christmas a sudden surprise of shopping for gifts. I am always amazed at how kind and loving people are to us. We were given gift cards to spend on each other, people gave us cash gifts, and we got extra jobs as well - including the one today.

So it was a quiet Christmas, but not so different than we expected. We still wanted to do a day of service on Christmas eve, but it seemed that the wind -





removed a portion of our roof - didn't my dad do an incredible job of covering it for us?





and we spent Christmas Eve instead, waiting for the insurance man to show up, as well as working on the roof,





and Michael being blessed by a gift of a bass amp he'd been needing, including extra gear and a very nice bass as well.





I feel very spoiled, Michael does too. Now he not only has a practice bass that is very nice and can use anywhere, but he also has a very nice bass that will last him a lifetime and be good for even more situations he will come across.

I had to attend a contempt of court hearing against my dh. He was found guilty and ordered to pay support or go to jail, including back pay. He refused to answer questions on the stand three times, "On the grounds I might convict myself." He was also caught not being able to prove many things he said, and took them back when pressed. He submitted false evidence, then said it was a mistake. He at first denied unfaithfulness but, after questioning, admitted to it. The judge was not very sympathetic to him or his lawyer.

The Lord continues to watch over us and take care of us. We shall continue to wait on Him and see where it all goes.

We've been having a lot of adventures, but I needed a blogging break. However, I have noticed we are rapidly approaching the new year.

And you all know what that means! Planning for the coming year's projects! We've already begun making gardening plans.

Have you started already as well?

~Faith

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