Still looking a lot like Christmas!!!

Okay, so this is how our tree looked the evening of the 25th. All ready for our kids and grands to come the next day to celebrate!!!

And this my friends is how our tree looked on January 1, 2010!!!. That's right, it's just the same!! You see, we had a mysterious visitor come to our house on the evening of Christmas and it wasn't SANTA CLAUS!!! No, girls it was Mr. Stomach Flu who came calling, and he left us both sick as dogs for almost a week!! Oh my, this will be a Christmas to remember and not for good reasons!!!! I seriously thought of just packing it all away for next year. Then I could say I was all ready for Christmas of 2010 in January!! But, I guess that really wouldn't really be fair to the granddaughters. We will hopefully get together with of family next weekend.

I have already started taking down stuff and packing it away, except for the big tree, which I will leave for another week or so. It feels good to kind of start putting it all away. This Christmas arrived way before I was ready this year, and the weeks of December just seemed to fly right by. My mother always told me it would be like this and I didn't believe her!!!

I have the "urge to purge" ( maybe symptoms left from the flu)!! Ha. But It is time to go through stuff and weed out what I don't just LOVE and pass on the rest to someone else. I have never liked the word Downsize..... it sounds like I'm ready for the assisted living center or something, but I do feel that eventually the possessions of life can sometimes FEEL like they own us and weigh us down. Is anyone else wrestling with these feelings also? I mean, I really love my Junk, I really do!!! A lot of my friends cannot relate to my love of JUNK anyway, so this is difficult to describe, but I KNOW many of you can relate. I really hate to get rid of something BEFORE I've had a chance to make it into something else. The joy is in the transformation itself!!

Maybe I need to take a lesson from the birds, Just look at them. They don't have a possession in the world and they are taken care of so well, aren't they?

Isn't he so beautiful?

Still enjoying the lights on the house at night. I think the icicle lights are soooo beautiful!! We still have lots of snow and it keeps snowing little bits almost every day. So beautiful!! Was so good to get out to church this morning. We helped take down decorations there too and pack them away for another year. After lunch then went by Walmart to pick up a few items and of course I found a few Christmas items that were 75% off!!! I couldn't just walk out empty-handed could I? So, I managed to pick up a few little things here and there to add to my already overflowing decorations. I am afflicted!!! Is there any hope for me??

I pray that the New Year will bring each of us a sense of His presence inside us and guide us into how much is enough.

Blessings, Linda

Happy New Year!!!!

Happy New Year dear friends!!!!! I hope this past year had been one to reflect, learn, and give thanks for, as we all look on a clean, fresh, piece of paper to write another chapter on!!

Remember when you were young and you got a clean fresh piece of pretty paper to create a work of art on in school? I was always so excited to see what I could transfer from my mind onto that piece of paper. Our lives are so much like that, we are all artists!!! First, we are inspired by a dream of something, and then we sketch it out on paper for just the right proportions before we begin to color it in with the colors we love best. We also have the "Master Creator" to help shape, mold, and color our design. Our lives are filled with these little masterpieces that we and the Father create together. Sometimes He tells us to "go ahead" and do what we want, and sometimes he whispers gently in our ears to let him take over and watch him work, and we are amazed at his handiwork, his knowledge and skill to bring out just what we dreamed of!!!

May you all know the feeling of creating with the "Father" as your teacher as you paint in the colors of your life.

It has been now nearly a year since my first post, and I have so enjoyed this journey on paper!!!. To meet so many new friends and women who "get me". I have drawn confidence from that, to know that I am not alone and not as weird as I sometimes feel in this world. So many kindred spirits that I would have never known, had it not been for taking that first step of putting it on paper. I am so grateful for Dawn at The Feathered Nest for guiding and encouraging me to try even when I didn't know what I was doing. In many ways, I still don't know what I am doing, but I sure am having a good time!!! Thank you for all of your kind comments to me to inspire and encourage me. I really appreciate each one of you who have taken the time to leave me a little comment here and there.

May we all look forward to 2010 with creative anticipation of what we will create together!!

Linda