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December Reflections

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December Reflections

I know I often comment on how quickly time seems to go by, but, wow, December flew by in a blur! It’s hard to believe it’s almost over.

Most of the first part of the month was preparation for Christmas, as I am sure it was for many of you–ordering and wrapping presents, writing our Christmas letter, addressing and mailing cards, making cards for the family.

When we decorated for Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I did something to my back. I wasn’t aware of wrenching or pulling anything at the time, But about 11 that night, I started experiencing spasms that left me in tears. Those subsided after a few days, but I’ve had lower back pain the rest of this month until this week. My dear husband stepped in to help in a multitude of ways. Icy Hot, Tylenol, and and heating pads have been my friends.

We celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary this month at a new-to-us steakhouse, bringing home Krispy Kreme for dessert.

Our oldest son came in from RI the weekend before Christmas. We had a great Christmas with all the family as well as lots of time together to chat and play games.

But we have been trading colds around, so some have missed different activities. We’re hoping to have at least one more dinner all together before Jeremy has to leave.

Watching

A few things we watched this month:

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey. A boy’s life is turned upside down when his father dies (I think in the Civil War). The boy and his mother have to move to be with her sister. On the trip, he loses a treasured Nativity set. They ask a woodworking recluse in their new town to carve a new one for them, and gradually, a friendship forms, healing both hearts.

Kevin Costner Presents: The First Christmas. This was a documentary with much of it acted out. I wasn’t expecting a lot from it, honestly, knowing how these things usually go on TV. But I was pleasantly surprised. They got a couple of things wrong, but overall, it was very good. My favorite part was the scene with Simeon realizing he was seeing the promised Christ.

Christmas on the Square was a cheesy, badly lip-synched musical, but it was still kind of cute in a way. Dolly Parton wrote it and stars as both a homeless woman and an angel. A Scroogish woman who owns all the buildings in the town square plans to sell the place and evict everyone right before Christmas, until she’s shown the error of her ways.

Joy for Christmas was a pretty typical modern Christmas movie. It caught our eye because we had seen the actress in something else. A publicist whose family holds an annual charity event for children fights to keep it going. When she meets a famous athlete, she tries to recruit him to appear at their benefit. But he’s not into Christmas, so she tries to kindle some Christmas spirit in him. A clean, sweet film.

We also watched the original black and white Miracle on 34th Street for the very first time. It was cute, but I’m not fond of stories that involve trying to convince people that Santa is real. I’m not militantly anti-Santa–we treated him as any other fairy tale or storybook character when our kids were small. But I don’t want to give him the credit for gifts we lovingly chose for our children, not convince them to believe something they’re going to find out later is false.

Creating

This was a busy month for cards. When I am making a lot at one time, I rely more on stickers and simple designs.

This first one was for my friend, Melanie, whose birthday is near the end of November. She likes purple, so I try to feature that color prominently. This looks grey in some lights, but it’s really purple.

Birthday card

This was for Jim for our anniversary. The wording in the center was a sticker. It’s not very readable here: it says, “As I give you my hand to hold, I give you my heart to keep.”

Homemade anniversary card

This was Jim’s Christmas card. I loved this frame that came with a packet of Christmas scrapbooking materials. I’m wishing I had done something a little different with the middle part of it. But he liked it. 🙂 The trees, snowflake, and words were stickers. The lamppost was in the same packet as the frame.

This was Jeremy’s. He likes foxes. The fox, trees, words, holly, and Santa hat were all stickers.

This was Jason’s, adapted from an idea seen at Pinterest. The “Noel” and a couple of the snowflakes were stickers. The song books and noses were cut out freehand. I used stencils for the snowmen bodies and heads and a hole punch for the mouths.

This was Mittu’s. I’ve seen a lot of Christmas decorations this year with this “sweets” theme and pastel colors. I’d love to decorate for Christmas with these if they didn’t clash with the stuff I already have. The wording as well as the candies under the words were stickers.

This was Timothy’s, also adapted from a Pinterest find. It’s supposed to look like a s’more with a snowman marshmallow. The snowman was cut freehand from stick-on felt. The arms, nose, chocolate, and graham crackers were cut freehand. The words and snowflakes were stickers. The eyes and smile were made from little stick-on beads, but they didn’t stick very well to the felt. I had to use dabs of Elmer’s glue.

This was Jesse’s. For years I have gone with a tech or gamer theme for him. But he also likes medieval things. The knight was done with the Cricut, the wording with the computer.

Reading

Since last time I have finished:

  • Exodus for You: Thrilling You with the Liberating Love of God by Tim Chester
  • Amy Snow by Tracy Rees. A little girl from a well-to-do family finds and brings home an abandoned baby on the family’s grounds. The girls grow up good friends though the first girl’s parents strongly disapprove, When she knows she is dying, and that Amy will likely get kicked out when she’s gone, she plans an elaborate adventure with clues to lead Amy to people who will be her friends and supporters. This was a secular story, so I disagree with a couple of things. And it moved slowly in places. But overall I enjoyed it.
  • My Beloved by Jan Karon, the unexpected newest in the Mitford series. Father Tim writes a love letter to his wife for Christmas, which accidentally makes it through the town before getting to her. Some of the results were comic, some touching. It’s always good to visit the folks in Mitford.
  • A Royal Christmas by Melody Carlson. A young American woman studying to be a lawyer finds out she’s related to the king of Montovia and next in line for the throne.
  • The Christmas Book Flood by Roseanna M. White. Neat story about the Icelandic tradition of reading books received as gifts Christmas evening.
  • Tidings of Comfort and Joy by Davis Bunn. A young girl misses out on a longed-for family vacation at Christmas due to illness. Her grandmother tries to distract and comfort her with her own story of heartache from one Christmas after WWII when her fiance abandoned her and she was stuck in England for weeks. She helps out at an orphanage during a hepatitis outbreak and finds new meaning and purpose. Good.
  • Finding Christmas by Karen Schaler is an almost totally secular take on Christmas. An avid Christmas lover sets up a scavenger hunt for her boyfriend, but the wrong man finds and follows the clues. Or is he the right man after all? A very Hallmark-type Christmas story.
  • Waiting for Christmas by Lynn Austin. A young boy from an orphanage insists he is not an orphan: his dad is working in a ship and will be back at Christmas. He runs away from the orphanage insisting that his sister was hiding when he was taken in. He ends up in the bushes of a young couple who try to help him, not sure whether to believe him or not. Sweet story, tying with The Christmas Flood as my favorite Christmas novella this year.
  • Blizzard at Blue Ridge Inn by Pat Nichols. Three women arrange to meet their husbands at an inn for Christmas, but are snowed in before the husbands can get there. They learn they are not there by accident, and their worlds are about to be turned upside down. An interesting premise, but it fell a little flat to me.
  • The Wish Book Christmas by Lynn Austin. Two boys obsessed with the Sears Wish Book catalog in 1951 get lessons from their mothers about giving and the true meaning of Christmas.

Most of the Christmas books were novellas, which is the only reason I got so many in this month.

I’m currently reading:

  • Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany compiled by Sarah Arthur. I’m not liking this as much as I thought I would, but I have found a few good nuggets in it.
  • The Characters of Christmas: 10 Unlikely People Caught Up in the Story of Jesus by Daniel Darling
  • Mercy Mild: A 25-Day Christmas Devotional Tracing Christ’s Love from Eden to Eternity by Josh Taylor
  • The Book of Hours by Davis Bunn.

I set aside James for You by Sam Allberry and The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield this month for some Advent reading. I should probably not try to read three Advent books at once, but I couldn’t decide between them.

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

  • Is God Disappointed In Me? It can feel like it when I fail Him so often. But Scripture offers comfort, instruction, hope, and examples of God’s dealings with His own who have failed.
  • A Plea to Older Women. Condescending memes about how our generation supposedly did things so much better are not helpful. Let’s encourage and edify younger women instead.
  • What Would Mary Say? People have conflicting views about the mother of Jesus, but her words in Scripture give us a clear idea of who she was.
  • The Wonder of God With Us. After 400 years of silence from God, after millennia of access to Him only through the OT sacrificial system, finally the promised Messiah is born. It was prophesied centuries earlier that He would be called Immanuel, God with us. What a wonder! What a privilege!
  • When God’s Story Crashes Into Ours. Many people’s lives were upended by Christ’s coming. And He interrupts ours as well sometimes. Will we respond with faith, acceptance, and submission?

Writing

Nothing on this front, other than the blog, as you can imagine! I hope to get back at it next month.

Looking ahead

I usually share the books I’ve read for the year and my favorites among them during this week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, but that will have to wait til next week.

I’m scheduled for ablations for atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation next week. I’d appreciate your prayers that all would go smoothly with no complications and that the procedures would accomplish what they are supposed to. I don’t remember how recovery went after my last ablation seven years ago except that I couldn’t lift anything heavy for a while and my heart was more erratic than usual for several weeks due to all their poking around in it. But I imagine I’ll be taking it easy for a bit.

I hope and pray for a blessed 2026 for you!

December Reflections

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I imagine your December was filled with many of the same things ours was: Christmas decorating, shopping, wrapping, addressing Christmas cards and writing family newsletters, cleaning and preparing for family members or friends to visit. I’ve often thought that the Christmas “extras” would be a lot more manageable without the everyday stuff that still needs to be done. 🙂 Thankfully, my husband offered to get take-out several times before Christmas week and helped me with some tasks.

Jim and I celebrated our 43rd anniversary with a dinner out at a nice restaurant.

The week before Christmas, my grandson, Timothy, tested positive for Covid. We were thinking about whether it would be best to put Christmas celebrations off for a day or try to celebrate separately over FaceTime. But, thankfully, his fever broke and symptoms lessened in time to do Christmas as scheduled.

This was not a white Christmas, but it was the coldest one we’ve had since we were married. We’ve reached a low of 7F in the middle of some winter nights, but this year we were at 3 or 4 for a couple of days.

We managed to get to a Christmas concert by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and a small new drive-through light show as well as dinner out a couple of times.

And we had a wonderful Christmas together with lots of catching up and games on the other nights.

Thankfully, my oldest son is here for two weeks. I’m so glad, because Christmas week was so busy and went by so fast. Even though he’s working from our home this week, we have an extra weekend and evenings this week to be together. And with Timothy sick over a few days and Mittu one day, it’s nice to have a few extra days built into this visit.

Creating

I send out store-bought cards to extended friends and family, but make cards for immediate family. That makes December a busy card-making month with family Christmas cards as well as our anniversary and my step-father’s birthday.

This was my card to Jim for our anniversary:

The birds and branch were done on the Cricut. The white background was embossed on the Cuttlebug.The writing was printed on the computer–I usually do all my greetings and inside sentiments on cardstock through the computer, several on one page, and cut them apart.

This was Jim’s card for Christmas.

The white trees were embossed with the Cuttlebug and the deer was made with the Cricut.

This was Jeremy’s:

The fox was from a free download found on Pinterest. I printed him off on cardstock and cut him out with an Exacto knife. The trees were made via Cricut and dabbed with a glue stick and then doused with glitter. This was the first card I made this year, because I wanted Jeremy’s to be done before he came. I made a note to myself not to make the first card with glitter unless I want all the cards to have glitter. 🙂 I think I still have glitter on my work table and even had some embedded on my glue stick.

This was Jason’s:

I don’t know if you can tell, but the letters and center snowflake are big spongy stickers. Then I put a few more of the snowflake stickers in the center of the snowflakes on the background paper.

This was Mittu’s:

I was especially pleased with this one. I couldn’t find a design on the Cricut for a long branch of a pine or fir tree, so I cut out four smaller ones and arranged them.

This was Timothy’s:

The gingerbread stickers from Hobby Lobby were made out of fabric, ribbon, and buttons. I was delighted to find scrapbooking paper with Christmas cookies for the background on one of my multi-packs of paper.

And this was for Jesse:

This is all done with stickers except the background scrapbooking paper. After it was too late, I realized I should have cut apart the “JOY” sticker and spread out the letters a bit.

This was for my step-father’s after-Christmas birthday.

I found this paper in a pad of Christmas scrapbooking paper, too, but thought it looked like it would do for a non-Christmas card.

Watching and Listening

Somehow we didn’t watch some of our usual favorite Christmas movies. But we did see a really good new-to-us one. My husband likes WWII movies and somehow found one set during Christmas. Silent Night was made in 2002, starring Linda Hamilton. She plays a mom in Germany whose home gets bombed. Her husband is a soldier, but she’s not in sympathy with the war. She and her son travel to their family’s hunting cabin, which happens to be near the front lines. Three American soldiers burst in on Christmas Eve, one of them wounded. They take over her cabin and distrust her efforts to help. She has her son hide the soldiers’ guns. And then three German soldiers come. . . She tries to negotiate a Christmas peace for the night while the soldiers are all wary of each other.

We also watched Meet John Doe, and old black and white film with Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper. A newspaper columnist is fired but has one last column to write. She makes up a story about receiving a letter from an unemployed John Doe saying he’s going to jump off a building on Christmas Eve in protest of the state of the world. A number of people write in, offering John Doe jobs and giving him reasons to stay. The reporter convinces the newspaper to hire a man to impersonate “John Doe.” As people do for publicity, the newspaper and backers push and milk the story for all it’s worth, and the whole thing grows into a movement. But one businessman funding the scheme has his own agenda.

And, I’m not much for Hallmark Christmas movies, but I did enjoy The Mistletoe Promise while wrapping presents one afternoon. A lawyer is not fond of Christmas after some disappointments earlier in his life.He runs into a businesswoman in the food court who feels the same way due to her scheming ex-husband, with whom she still works. The lawyer is up for partner, but his boss is big on family values. He feels his chances would increase if he had a girlfriend and was heading towards marriage. So he proposes the “mistletoe contract” with his businesswoman friend, where she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend. To make it more realistic, they attend several Christmas events together. And, of course, you now what happens. 🙂 But it was a sweet movie overall.

I finished listening to the Literary Life podcasts on Dracula. They ended the series with a program on “Dracula At the Movies,” showing how the film adaptations changed over the years as society’s perception of evil changed. The book comes from the view that Dracula represents evil and must be destroyed.But later films change the story to provoke sympathy for Dracula and eventually to regard him as the mistreated hero.

I also listened to Your Best Writing Life’s podcasts on Organize Your Writing Life for Higher Productivity with Liana George and Writing Hybrid Devotional Studies with Kathy Howard (hybrid devotional studies being something between one verse and a couple of paragraphs on one hand and a full-fledged Bible study with an hour’s homework on the other hand).

Reading

I recapped all the books I read this year here and chose my top twelve here. But just to be consistent and share what I read since last month:

I’m currently reading:

  • Seasons of Sorrow: The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God by Tim Challies. Almost done!
  • Writing for the Soul: Instruction and Advice from an Extraordinary Writing Life by Jerry B. Jenkins
  • Be Transformed (John 13-21): Christ’s Triumph Means Your Transformation by Warren W. Wiersbe
  • Hope for Christmas by Malissa Chapin

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews and book recap posts previously mentioned, I’ve posted these since last time:

  • The Meekness of Wisdom. It takes meekness both to receive and share wisdom.
  • God Does Not Forget Prayers or Promises. God ended 400 years of silence with an announcement of John the Baptist’s birth. He cares and has not forgotten His people, even though His timing is different than ours.
  • Why Did Jesus Come as a Baby? There are a number of reasons Jesus came to earth as a human, but why specifically as a baby? Some thoughts here.
  • The Savior of the World Is Here. Herod was once called “the Savior of the World.” But a baby born to poor parents in a stable was the only one with a claim to that title.

Writing

Not much, if any, this month! Our critique group disbanded for the holidays and will start back up in January. I hope to really dig into my writing then.

I wish you all the best for the coming year!

December Reflections

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I wasn’t sure, at first, whether I’d do an end-of-December post. Probably many of our activities have been the same as yours, with getting ready for and then celebrating Christmas. But there were a few things unique to this month, so I decided to go ahead.

Family news

My oldest son is visiting, as he always does for Christmas. But he’s staying a week longer than usual, for two reasons. First, he usually leaves the Sunday after Christmas. This year, that would have meant leaving the day after Christmas, which would have been an abrupt end to our holiday togetherness. Plus, my middle son’s workplace is its busiest in December. On top of that, the temp agencies they work with this time of year promised 20 workers, but only two came. So Jason has been working nights and weekends for weeks. If Jeremy had left the 26th, he would not have seen Jason’s family much at all. So this week Jeremy is working from home here during the day, then we have more visiting time in the evenings. It has been nice to have the extra time together after the busyness leading up to Christmas subsides.

Jim and I celebrated our 42nd anniversary a few days before Christmas. We usually celebrate with a nice meal out and exchanging cards. This year we went to a ritzier restaurant than usual because when we sold our rental house earlier this year, at closing our realtor gave us a gift card to Ruth Chris Steakhouse. We had never been there before. It was very nice. I’m afraid I could get used to luxury all too easily.

Creating

This has been a banner month for card-making. I buy Christmas cards to send to extended family and friends, but I make them for immediate family. Plus we had some other occasions for cards this month.

This was for a friend’s birthday. The white part was done with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

This was for our pastor’s surprise party for his 50th birthday. I got the idea from Pinterest and used the Cricut for the numbers and window. The words were stickers.

This was for our anniversary. My husband was a physics major, math minor, so when I saw this idea, it appealed to me.

This was Jim’s Christmas card. The deer and trees were done with the Cricut. I printed out the words for all the Christmas cards on the computer.

I did think about saying deer/dear instead of love, but I resisted. 🙂

This was Jeremy’s. I usually do something with a fox for him. But he has a cat, so I decided to use the feline influence. The cat was made with the Cricut, the presents from scrapbooking paper.

His cat isn’t totally black: she has some brown/tan/gold colors in her fur. But there was no way I could replicate that, so solid black would have to do.

This was Jason’s. I wanted to use the fa la la paper in some way, and he’s the most interested in playing different instruments. The instruments were done with the Cricut; the frame was done with decorative scissors.

This is Mitttu’s. The door was done with the Cricut. I printed the wreath from some free clip art and cut it out by hand.

Timothy’s is supposed to look like a snow globe. I was excited to work with clear acetate for the top of it. I had some little plastic bits from a package of snowflake confetti that I used for the snow–the snowflakes themselves were too big. But static cling keeps the “snow” from moving around much. If I ever do this again, I’ll use sequins. The snowman and trees were stickers.

Jesse’s contains something of an inside joke. For his white elephant gift for a young adults Christmas party, he found some pizza socks—a set of socks decorated with different pictures of pizza toppings, folded all together in a pizza box. So, I thought, since a pizza slice is the same shape as a Christmas tree . . . I’d use that as the base of his card. The pizza slice was done on the Cricut.

This year’s Christmas cards are some of my favorites.

Reading

Since last time I have completed:

  • Christian Reflections by C. S. Lewis. His thoughts on literature, culture, church music, ethics, subjectivism, and more. Challenging, but good.
  • Be Available (Judges): Accepting the Challenge to Confront the Enemy by Warren W. Wiersbe
  • The Nature of a Lady by Roseanna M. White. I had just finished this last month but had not reviewed it then. Lady Elizabeth takes her maid to the Isles of Scilly to escape the marriage her brother is trying to arrange for her. But she is mistaken for another Elizabeth and given strange notes and packages. The local vicar—the other Elizabeth’s brother—works with Libby to try to decipher the messages and find his sister.
  • Chapel Springs Revival by Ane Mulligan. reminded me of I Love Lucy, but with a Southern accent. Not my favorite, but if you like that kind of humor, you’d probably enjoy this book.
  • A Quilt for Christmas by Sandra Dallas, a Civil war-era novel. A women makes a quilt for her husband while he is soldiering. It comes back to her in an unusual way. Plus her beliefs are tested when she is asked to shelter a runaway slave wanted for murder.
  • A Christmas by the Sea by Melody Carlson. A woman plans to update a seaside cottage she inherited in order to sell it. But her son wants to stay there.
  • Last Christmas in Paris: A Novel of World War I by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb. Four friends plan to meet for Christmas in Paris after WWI ends. But it lasts much longer than expected. Several decades later, the last of the four travels to Paris for his last Christmas to read the one unopened letter remaining from their correspondence. Excellent. One of my top twelve of the year.
  • The Yuletide Angel by Sandra Ardoin. Victorian novel about an anonymous benefactor, the man who secretly guards and admires her, and another not so friendly stalker.
  • The Ornament Keeper by Eva Marie Everson. Separated after twenty years of marriage, a woman unpacks the special ornaments her husband had given her every year, remembers their lives together, and tries to figure out if they can get past the resentment and lack of forgiveness.
  • Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien wrote letters to his children as Father Christmas for several years, complete with disasters set off by the kind but bumbling North Polar Bear. Delightful.

That looks like a lot, but most of the Christmas stories were novellas.

I’m currently reading:

I posted my top twelve books of the year here and all the books I read this year here.

Watching and Listening

My husband and I aren’t binge watchers. He can barely stand to spend two hours viewing something. We started watching the last season of the remake of Lost in Space on Netflix here and there. Then one night, after a long and busy day, we got pizza and watched the next episode. And we had to find out what happened next, so we watched on . . . and on until we finished it. It’s such a good series. I love the emphasis on family. It’s much more intense than the original version.

We also watched A Castle for Christmas, a pretty cute movie about an author who travels to the castle where her father’s family worked in Scotland and finds out its for sale. The owner needs to sell but doesn’t want to, so he tries to sabotage her plans. Then we watched Elf with Jesse and Jeremy and found out later that Jason and Mittu had also watched it. I’ve seen it once or twice before, but still enjoyed it a lot.

I listened to a podcast series by Audible set up like an old radio serial: The Cinnamon Bear: A Holiday Adventure. It was a little too much at times—a little loud and bizarre. And the opening note of its intro music is the worst in the history of intro music. But it was cute and clever in places.

Blogging

In the last month, I have shared:

Writing

Of course, writing has taken a back seat this month. But in January I want to map out time to make it a priority.

Sad News

I wasn’t quite sure where to mention this. We found out a few days before Christmas that my husband’s second oldest brother died from Covid and his wife was in ICU with Covid. It’s been something of a shock. He’s the first of any of our siblings to pass. We’re still processing and waiting to hear more.

Looking Ahead

December has been a full month. I enjoyed the time with family so much. But I am kind of glad the Christmas hoopla is over and the last few days have been more relaxed (for me anyway—maybe not so much for those returning to work). We’ll still have some time together this weekend. Then it’s on to new calendars and a bright shiny new year.

I’ve shared this before, but I love this quote from Captain Jim in Anne’s House of Dreams by L. M. Montgomery:

“Welcome, New Year,” said Captain Jim, bowing low as the last stroke died away.
“I wish you all the best year of your lives, mates.
I reckon that whatever the New Year brings us will be the best
the Great Captain has for us.”

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

End-of-December and 2020 Reflections

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Well, it’s been quite the year hasn’t it? Truly we never know what a day—or a year—will bring forth (Proverbs 27:1). Much has been written about the pandemic and other events of the year, so I won’t reiterate them here. Probably the top takeaways for me this year are:

  • Hold plans loosely.
  • God is still in control. Life’s circumstances have not taken him by surprise.
  • We walk the same way we do in any circumstances—by faith.
  • Listen more, assume less.

Thankfully, our family had a couple of excursions right before the lockdowns began. That helped the initial isolation not feel as bad. My husband and I celebrated our 40th anniversary from last December a little late and went to the Gatlinburg/Sevierville/Pigeon Forge area in January to stay in a nice, cabin-like hotel, eat at a nice restaurant, attend a couple of attractions, and reread some love notes from college days. Then in February we visited the Biltmore House and Downton Abbey exhibit with all the family except my oldest, who lives out of state.

A friend and I went out for lunch during the early days of the virus and discussed it and what effects it might have. We had no idea it would be so widespread and last so long. But we were glad that we had that time together right before it.

Thankfully, my husband and three sons could all work from home for the most part. Jason, my middle son, had to go in a lot during December, their busiest time of the year. Because we were all isolating, we felt safe getting together (the strictest regulations here so far limited gatherings to ten, and we’re only seven when all together). My oldest son missed his April visit, but came in August and December via train, mostly on a sleeper car. So he hardly saw anyone on the trip, which he felt was safer (though much longer) than flying. Those gatherings and Zoom church sustained us.

We had some health issues: the atrial fibrillation which I had surgery for three years ago started up again and landed me in the ER twice. I have follow-up appointments in the next couple of weeks to see what we should do about that. The last hospital visit exposed us to COVID, as a nurse who talked about isolating from family because she worked with COVID patients kept pulling down her mask as she talked. That was the week before Jeremy’s scheduled train trip here, which made for some uncertainty. But we got a rapid COVID test the day before he was supposed to leave, and new guidelines said no symptoms and a negative test from day 5 or later after exposure only required a week’s quarantine, so we were good to go—and very thankful.

Normally I include “Timothyisms” in my monthly posts—quips from my six-year-old grandson. The only one I noted this time was when we were isolating due to one of Jason’s coworkers testing positive for COVID. They had helped us put up and decorate the Christmas tree earlier, and as we FaceTimed, I showed Timothy some of the presents accumulating under it. He said, “Granddad Claus is coming to town!”

We send store-bought Christmas cards to loved ones, but I make them for the immediate family. I try to incorporate their favorite colors and interests.

This was Jim’s:

The little squares were made with the Cuttlebug embosser.

This was for Jeremy, who likes foxes:

The background was embossed, and the fox and trees came from a scrapbook paper set. The Merry Christmas was a sticker.

This was Jason’s:

He likes blue, and I am often drawn to cheery, whimsical ideas for him. The words at the bottom were on a sticker.

This was for Mittu, my daughter-in-law, who likes purple:

The idea I had seen on Pinterest (where I get most of my inspiration) showed a tree made with heart-shaped cutouts. I decided to add the glitter-frosted edges. I liked it better before I added the Merry Christmas sticker at the bottom, but I couldn’t remove it once I glued it on.

This was Timothy’s:

I saw the idea here (via Pinterest) for using shapes to create the penguin. But mine must have been shaped a little differently—it didn’t look right to try to make it short and squatty like hers. But I thought it turned out cute. I had to get Jesse to help me with the eyes: I just couldn’t get something that tiny cut out and glued on. I wished later I had outlined the little sign so it stood out better.

This was Jesse’s:

And this was for our anniversary:

I usually list what we’ve been watching in these posts, but we haven’t watched much out of the ordinary the last two months (I missed November–there just wasn’t a good time to work an end-of-month post in). I’m still working through the Lark Rise to Candelford series while using the exercise bike. Somehow we didn’t watch any of the usual Christmas movies or specials. We streamed The Croods: A New Age and Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey to watch with the family. They were . . . okay. My husband and I watched Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors when it was on TV one night and were surprised that network TV allowed such upfront messages about faith and eternal destiny. I wouldn’t take all my theology from the movie, but the message of the need to trust in God was clear.

I won’t list the books reads in November and December since I just posted all the books I read this year as well as my top twelve.

And, since this is an end-of-year post, instead of listing posts from the last two months, I thought I’d look back at the posts from the year that seemed to resonate the most with readers. My five most-read posts of the year are:

I’m thankful people found something useful there. I need to go back and remind myself of some of those truths.

It’s hard to end the year with a sense of closure and look to 2021 as bright and shiny and new when so many of this year’s problems remain: the pandemic and its physical, emotional, and economic toll, the civil and racial strife and unrest, a new administration with alarming values. But my Daily Light on the Daily Path entry for this morning was all about God bearing His people as on eagle’s wings. My Bible reading in Exodus 33 told of the time just after Israel made and worshiped the golden calf instead of God. He was going to send them on to the promised land, but not go with them Himself because they were a stiffnecked people. But Moses pleaded, and God promised, “‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’ And he [Moses] said to him [God], ‘If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here'” (verses 14-15). Whatever happens in the coming year, we can rely on God’s presence and depend on Him to bear us up.

(Sharing with Grace and Truth, Senior Salon, InstaEncouragements)