Christmas Preparations

It’s been a week since I’ve written and that is a surprise even to me. I guess I’ve been busy getting things ready for Christmas. You know, since I’m not working, I am the one that has time to get everything done. And honestly, I love it!! This is the first time in years that I have had time to do all the errands, shopping, decorating, wrapping, card writing, all ahead of time. This makes the holidays more relaxing and fun! We have everything done! All presents wrapped and under the tree, all decorating done, all ornaments on the tree, I am even almost done with writing my cards!

This past Friday, we went to get our Christmas tree. We drove to a farm (didn’t have to go too far!) that raises trees and sells them freshly cut or you can cut your own. They were really nice there and had some beautiful trees. We bought a Douglas Fir, which is a kind that I have purchased for my home in the past. It’s a great tree, 8 feet tall, nice and full, smells so good. But there’s something different about it. It’s FLOCKED!! Have you ever seen a flocked tree? I have not until this year! For those of you that are like me and don’t know what flocking is – here’s what they do. They take the freshly cut tree, mount it to a stand, spray it with this glue and “stuff” mixture, like with a spray paint gun and this white stuff sticks to the tree and looks like snow. It’s beautiful. And it’s supposed to help keep the moisture in the tree and help it not dry out so quickly.

I’ve got all the presents ready to go, I just have to get everything packed now. I have some of my daughter’s things that she left here, so I’m going to pack up the clothes and bring them back with me. Her other things I will just pack them up today and send them off. I think I’ll UPS them just because UPS is more reliable than the post office. Besides, I have had problems with the post office here in Hanford. They are very, very slow to deliver mail. I don’t feel confident that they will get it sent out quick enough.

I’m going home next week to see my kids and our families!! I’m going to see a few friends, but I won’t be home long enough to see everyone that I would like to. It was hard getting return flights the closer it got to Christmas, so I had to cut my trip short – heading to Cincinnati on Wednesday, heading back home on Monday. But in that time, I have crammed quite a bit into it. It will be fun and I know it will go fast, too fast. But we are going to celebrate Christmas and Birthdays ( My son will be 21 and my youngest daughter will be 19. It will be great to have everyone together.

You may recall that my son has been in the Nederlands, meeting new Christians, celebrating life in Christ, learning more and becoming more prepared to do Missionary work. I’m not sure of his immediate plans. I think he’s planning on staying in Cincinnati for a while, then heading to Switzerland, then to the Philippines. Hopefully he will heed the political environment of the Philippines prior to going there. The other day the U.S. Embassy closed because of bomb threats. If he goes, I will just have to be a nervous Mom and pray a lot more than I do now for his safety. But anyway, for the moment, we will all be together next week! We haven’t been together in 2 ½ months.

Merry Christmas to everyone!