twelve days of christmas --- twelfth night lives on~

Here it is now the tenth day of Christmas by my calculations~ Most people are taking down their Christmas things but I am just getting in the mood more each day! Tuesday is Epiphany which is a day I have always enjoyed too!

I like to leave our lights up in January in the winter when things are more gloomy too and take down decorations at the end of the month or before Valentine's Day~

So time to write our holiday letter to friends this week on email, count my blessings for the kids coming home this year to visit from PA and CA, to enjoy the icey lake from the house as people do ice fishing, hockey, skating and simple walks on the ice today after a stormy day yesterday.

After my spill on the ice before Christmas I am still in a splint on my right arm and wrist so I will try to enjoy the ice from inside this year with the red sled with skates on our porch and Christmas lights staying up in our yard this January ......

We will be leaving the colored trees up and the new Christmas village* surprise at Grandpa's house this Christmas *he found a village and we each were able to get a piece of the village to make our own villages ---- and a new fancy lit up and colored snow globe from friends, new books to enjoy, new jellies and jams and new / old music to fill up the house! It is a good thing Christmas comes to interrupt our lives and stop our usual activities or at least a few of them!

I found the red sled with my sister in MO a few years ago and it continues to bring me great joy with ice skates too as I remember the moments of Christmas past and present..... and chats with our kids, making food and fun times in our warm house again this year with snow around ... never mind the ice.

It is a time to also think of those without homes and those suffering from new wars and old wars .... and those who are sad, depressed and hungry or without schools or learning, heat and grocery stores or local markets.

My thoughts go out to those with HIV AIDS in Central NE and around the world, for other needs so great around the world ------ and those who are oppressed so that they might find peace this year too. I hope we can all find ways to help those in need now again in 2009 again in new ways and old ways.... to give generously, to renew relationships daily and to find ways to renew ourselves.

I hope we can all find ways to celebrate old man winter now and write up some memories of days growing up in N Dakota if time allows this year, some new projects and some old ones too .... and take time to read books, reflect, regroup, heal our wrists, arms and personal deep pains as we do up laundry, savor the photos, download them and as we remember the good times of friends and family this Christmas time ...... and look to the next year of 2009 with hope in my heart and a new president ----- new leadership coming and developing and new solutions needed for our anxious world and environment in trouble!

And I hope we can take time to savor the jams and jellies given to us, the chocolates that remain and leftover cookies ---- the gifts of charity, mercy and love, the handmade gifts and books selected for us ...... and time for sharing stories, dreams and broken places, sharing about our everydays lives --- which seem suspended for trips to airports, and yearning questions, plans for the future ----- doing simple tasks together and just sharing Christmas spaces, food and card games, music in the house from the piano and CD player ------movies being watched as we rest together with our loved ones -- who give us hope, peace and nurturing for a new year again!