Friday words . . .

 

Yesterday morning we awoke to a world covered in a glittery mantle of ice and frost. December's gift to us to help make up for the freezing temperatures and frozen fingers and toes we have been experiencing this past week.

All the world was frosted as if painted with magical crystal brush . . . made even more beautiful by the waning December sun which shone weakly in the winter sky.   The ground looked for all the world like it had been covered with snow, but it had not . . . only the tip of Jack Frost's brush as he danced across the garden here and there leaving his mark upon this wintery wonderland.

 

Each branch of tree . . .  and dying petal and leaf of bush . . . looking as if they had been dusted with sugar.  A magic crystaline world . . . which somehow manages to warm the heart, despite the cold, cold ground . . .

Our front garden is North Facing and so it stayed the whole day through . . . for the sun never quite made it's mark upon it.  It stood all day bathed in Winter's purity, pale colour bathed in white crystal.  Mitzie did not mind, for with frozen ground came the opportunity for her to run about at will, keeping all of the neighborhood cats at bay . . . there were no muddied paws to clean.



The pond, covered in a shell of ice at the edges . . . glows like burnished onyx. whilst the mark of tiny bird foot scatters itself  upon and beneath the frosted feeders as the puffed up visitors flitted in and out from gilded hedge . . . an extra fat ball and more mealy worms adding more pleasure to their wintery banquet.  This is one of the wonders of God . . . that these tiny, seemingly fragile creatures . . .  can survive on such a day.  My mind marvels at it all . . .

I took myself out front with camera in hand . . . glad that Todd had not yet clipped all the dying blooms from the hydrangea and rose bushes.  It made for a wonderful distraction . . . and then I spent an hour or so playing with my captures, whilst the warm smells of baking loaves wrapped themselves around the room.  I was baking loaves for the Women's party tonight at church . . . Sour Cream Banana and Walnut . . . Cranberry Orange, Deep Chocolate Fudge . . . Cinnamon Swirl.  Today it is finger sandwiches, cheese balls, dips and my special smoked salmon spread.  They are in for a treat!  I will get Todd to help me put together the bag favours . . . each one filled with a few nuts to crack, a candy cane, some choccies, hard candies and of course a tangerine . . . memories of Christmas Stockings . . . simple and sweet.

 

I called my mom late in the afternoon to see how she was faring.  I will go home of course to be with her through this ordeal, probably as soon as I can in the new year.  We will find the way somehow to do this, to get through this, and I will be with her in any and every way that I can.  I will be checking in with her each day in the meantime . . . not long conversations, but a few words each day to let her know she is loved and to remind her that God is on the case . . . yesterday I told her that we had already experienced the first miracle.  Had she not gone into the outpatients that day with vertigo . . . we would still be in the dark . . . the beast growing daily without our knowledge . . . but we do know and it will be seen to far earlier than it might have been otherwise.

She thanks you for your prayers of healing and comfort, as do I.  They mean the world to us.



I wonder how Todd will cope . . . I hope he eats enough and is not too lonely.  I hope that Mitzie will not forget me.  All these thoughts swirl through my mind . . . I hope that I am able to get my prescriptions sent over safely.  If I am there for more than a month I will need new ones etc. . . . things will work out.  I know they will.  But first . . . Christmas.



I am grateful for sweet distractions and a husband who makes me smile and puts up with all of my crazy ways and whims.  He is a sweet sweet man.  I am so blessed.

“Our most significant opportunities will be found in times of greatest difficulty.”  
~Thomas S Monson



Last month I was asked by Innocent Drinks if I would like to develop a Christmas Mocktail for one of their Twelve Days of Christmas.  I was happy to do so.  There is a downloadable printable card for it . . . The Mulled Turtle Dove Sparkler was what I came up with . . . a warm spiced drink, redolent of apples and ginger, blackberries and cinnamon . . . topped with popping candy coated apple stars, gilded with edible gold glitter.  You can find the recipe today in The English Kitchen. I do get to do the funnest things don't I!!

It is a most Wonderful Life!