The Joyful Season

 Hello dear friends and quiet followers :) HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! I know I've been absent quite some time, so I thought it's about time I got on here and wrote a little bit. I'll just share in words and pictures some of my goings on of late.

D E C E M B E R - always one of my favourite months of the year. I'm always like a big kid when it comes to Christmas. I love to decorate our home, make special food, have twinkly lights strewn here and there, put Christmas lilies in a vase to fragrance our home and special scents in the essential oil burner. This all creates that special atmosphere in our home....and of course the nativity scene will take centre stage, because after all that's what Christmas is all about. 

Nowadays each Christmas is different. Some years all the family will gather here...well we did for a long time :), but now all our children are either married or almost there and have 'new' families as well to consider. So I've learnt not to expect that everyone will come home for Christmas these days...and I'm okay with it now :) even though it has taken some getting used to. Other people's families are just as special and we just need to share everyone around.

The other day some of my grandchildren came over and we baked cookies. I saw an idea pop up from a ladies blog for chocolate chip cookies, dipped half in white chocolate and then sprinkled with crushed candy canes and they looked so good, that I gathered all the ingredients together and we had a fun time making them. My daughter was at the hairdressers, so I managed to keep them all amused between a sink full of soapy water for the littlest, to an ipad to watch slime videos on for older girls :)

My two year old grandaughter Laura Joy, having fun mucking in Nanny's bubbly dish water :)

My middle son Louis proposed to Ren :) - how exciting !!!

Our youngest little grand daughter came to visit - little  'Freya' - so cute

I forgot to take many more pics as the season just rolled on and there were presents to wrap, a Christmas cake to be baked, a house to decorate and food to be prepared. What fun it all was. 

However....

Sadly in the midst of all this my oldest sister passed away from an ongoing illness. That was very sad. I hadn't actually seen her in over 30 years as she lived in Australia. We weren't really close anymore and didn't keep in touch. There were many years when we didn't really even know where she was living...but even so, we watched her funeral via a skype sort of set up and the tears still rolled. My other sister had childhood photos she shared on the day of the funeral and all the old memories cam flooding back. It was especially hard for my mum to have to sit through her own child's funeral. Life is hard at times, and that makes me ever more grateful for my faith. The Lord is such a comfort. It's a blessing to be a believer.

I sit and write this on New Years day, which has been lovely. I just ate my way through the last slice of Pavlova...ahhh...thats enough pudding for quite some time. In my next post I'll do a wee update on what we're up to around home...always some sort of sanding/painting, furniture moving, weeding activity going on...ahhh LIFE, isn't it grand. The older I get the more I realise what a privilege that is, to have another day, another year. Each day is to be treasured. 

I'm thankful for my blog, for all of you I've met, for your quiet friendship and the sharing that goes on. It's a blessing. I'll try to post more this year. 

Love to you all ~ Linda (New Zealand)