The final picture of my year-long event!!! My favorite Christmas present ( that I bought for myself!!!)
It’s been a long year and as I look back on all the daily photos I’ve put up, I can remember some great times and some sad ones. Here’s hoping 2023 is a better, healthier, richer, and safer year than 2022! Thanks for taking this photographic journey with me!
As this year closes out and we all catch the end-of-the-year reflection bug, I can’t help but think what a rollercoaster 2022 was – in the world and in my own life.
My third-grade teacher, Mrs. Sinclair, used to say that whenever we think of something bad happening we should balance it by thinking of something good. Makes sense, no?
So, here are the bad things that happened (to me) in 2022, first:
~ I got Covid. REALLLLLY bad covid even though I was double-vaxxed and triple-boosted. I was laid up for 10 days with a wracking cough, incredibly high fevers, and no energy at all.
~ I developed a ridiculous double ear infection that rendered me 95% deaf for almost 2 weeks.
~ I watched the slow, progressive decline of my parents’ health and mentation.
~ I didn’t win Powerball. Not even once!
~ I didn’t win Megamillions.
And now, the positive:
~ my grandson took his first steps, said his first words, and recognizes me enough to dive-bomb me with hugs and kisses whenever he sees me.
~ I wrote, and subsequently had published, 7 new books
~ I got a new writing/publishing contract from Magnolia Blossom Publishing for 5 books
I’ve teamed up with my favorite promo site, Bookthrone, and together with a host of other authors, we’re sponsoring a SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOW giveaway! Click on the landing link below, follow the instructions for following the authors, and then you’ll b entered in the giveaway!
And of course, please support the authors with your follows and book buys! My Dickens Holiday Romance, FIXING CHRISTMAS is featured in the promotion.
So, for the holidays this year, we decided to take Maple Leaf with us instead of putting her in a kennel because of her torn ACL. She’d never traveled so far in the car before, and she reacted well. I did feel, though, like someone was always watching me while we were driving, LOL
So I had to post this picture because this angel just came to me right before Christmas. My dear friend, Jill, was recently in Italy and brought this angel back for me knowing 1. I love angels, and 2. I collect ornaments from wherever we go. She truly is a ride or die friend!
So I bought myself this little alarm clock so I could do writing sprints. If you look at the top of the clock, between the two bells, is a hammer. This is how it chimes when you set it. If I don’t get frustrated and throw the thing against the wall, this might truly pan out for me! LOL
When I was a kid, my grandmother ( whom I always had a tortured relationship with) told me to make a wish every Christmas Day because it was Jesus’s birthday. I would counter that he really should make his own wish since it was, you know, HIS birthday. She’d cuff me on the side of the head, tsk, and explain that on his birthday, Jesus granted wishes.
To this day, where she got this notion, I have no idea. It doesn’t say this in the Bible. Anywhere.
But, if I argued further I’d get another cuff, this one harder, and then be sent to my room, so I caved and said, “okay.”
Every. Friggin’. Time.
A hundred years later, and I still don’t know where she got this idea, but I’ve incorporated it into my Christmas morning prayers for decades.
One year I wished to lose 50 pounds. Didn’t happen.
One year I wished for a new car. Nothing.
One year I wished for world peace. No explanation needed.
Another year I wished for a puppy. Okay, got that one – Maple Leaf, the love of my life and the bane of my existence!
This year, I’d like to make a wish for YOU:
On this holy day of miracles, magic, and joy, I wish you:
Love – for you and from me, for everyone in your realm
Laughter – to get through the tough times and make the happy ones more enjoyable
Light – to always guide you through the darkness
Health – to keep you with us as long as God allows.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza from my house to yours. Make your own wish on this day. It just may come true. ( just don’t wish to lose 50 pounds, ‘cuz that one never comes true!!! LOL)
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).