Christmas is on again

Dear Friends,

Last Saturday I started writing a blog about the TRUE meaning of Christmas and what Christmas means to me, in memories, thoughts and wishes.

I turned into a long-ish piece and suddenly felt too ill to finish it. I went down hill in lots of ways. Pain "knocked me for six" (what a peculiar expression...) Anyway, I had to go to bed- and stay there. I felt cheated out of Christmas. I wanted to decorate my house some bit, I still had letters to write (Kirsten it's coming).

This bloody illness really got me this time.

But I have friends!

In tears of pain and fear, I rang my friend Phyllis. She shared my physical and mental pain, and later prayed for me with her friend Margaret Anne. The following day Phyllis came to visit and has been in touch every day. Thank you my dear friend.

Mariela kept me fed and watered, Jane gave me a loan of her spare bed and warm house on Monday as I had someone putting insulation in my attic. My house has been too cold for too long, at last something was done to remedy the problem. (I bought a stove and insulation and council were going to put it in). Thank you all.

A long chat with Spark helped me to see that I was very low. Looking back on the year we wondered why life had to be so hard at times. I started to feel better by the end of our chat.

Then....

Tuesday morning I woke up early. Opening the bedroom blind I was greeted with the most beautiful star in the sky. A huge bright star, which made me think about the image of the "Christmas Star".

I turned on the radio and heard that the eclipse of the moon was happening right now!

I wrapped up like the "man on the moon" and went outside with my camera.

I felt so privileged that I had seen both that star and the eclipse on this winter solstice morning.

Christmas was here and I was going to make it a good one.

Time, painkillers and other 'drugs' were helping me to get out of bed again and to start thinking about Christmas.

I must admit that I wasted lots of energy to try to have the council to place my new stove - before Christmas, so I could be WARM, and with the worry and inconvenience of not having water for two days.

Yesterday friends Marcus and Joan came to visit. Joan for tea and chocolate, Marcus to (temporarily) put the stove in for me. He worked hard, drove around to get flu pipes. Flexi-flu I now know it is called. He managed to put the stove in, without the proper flu-pipe. Excitedly Joan went outside to see if smoke rose from the chimney. It did! But opening the stove's door, the room filled with smoke...

Last night, happy that at least the stove was in it's rightful place, I decided to just put a candle in/on it for now and wait until council-plumber has time to put it in properly... I gave up the fight and wheeled an electric radiator into the room and created my 'Alternative Tree'.

Creativity is a great healer.

It was the turn of my room to be in a mess- I felt better.

Today... still no water.. and lets be honest - I needed a shower/bath... Jane came to the rescue again. After the 'water- visit' I was brought home, clean- and even with a load of clean laundry by her son Dan.

Lucky me! As Dan knew how to temporarily make my stove work.

So, my Christmas story that came to light was a very different story from the one I started to write almost a week ago.

Today, I feel so blessed to have friends, who are there for me when I need them, who sort out issues I cannot fix on my own, and who share their love and wisdom with me.

To top it all, even my water miraculously came back to the house.

Maybe fighting to hard to get things 'sorted' stopped them all from happening.

a little decoration in my study

My friends, here, there, and in cyberspace,

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas with friends and loved ones.

If you are alone on the day, I am sure that there will be people who will have you in their hearts. You will be in mine.

Thank you for your friendship and I look forward to spend more time with you

and get to know you better in the year ahead.

And of course, best wishes for Health and Contentment

for the year ahead.