Listen, the children have gone.  All is calm.  The packages have all been unwrapped and the pretty paper is now just trash in the trash can.  The food has been eaten and the leftovers await us for the rest of the week until some of it turns green. The floors need swept, but loved ones did the dishes for me. Thank you. Thank you.

The time after Christmas is always a strange time for me. I told David that it felt like I have been holding my breath since about October and now I can finally let it out.   I think about Christmas all year long, looking for gifts I hope will mean something to the giftee.   But for this next week I hope to just rest and relax and reflect on the past year, thankful we all got through it with our lives and can say things were pretty good for most of us.  I belong to this group on Facebook that is all about quilting and, believe me, I have got some awesome ideas for quilts I want to make in the coming year.  I am taking part in a couple of quilt block quiltalongs, something I have never done before and am looking forward to with a lot of excitement.

In the coming year I hope to get another puppy and maybe a kitten.  We have some more renovations to our old house planned which includes the screened in porch our contractor didn’t have time for this Fall.   We have no trips planned, but that does not mean we won’t fit one in somewhere during the year.   It’s fun to make plans although I have learned the hard way that most plans never happen as you planned.

The calm after Christmas is a welcome time for me since I have been going at top speed for weeks now.  Add the multiple trips we have made to Indianapolis and my time in the hospital, it’s been a very stressful and tiring time.  But now, I breathe a sigh of relief and look toward 2019 with faith that things will be well for my family and myself.   I’m thankful for my faith in God and what He has done for me this year.  My prayers are that every person reading this blog is blessed by God in the coming year with health, happiness and peace.   Wouldn’t the world be wonderful if everyone was blessed in that way?

The days will continue to get brighter now that Winter solstice has passed.  I look forward to longer, brighter days and before we all know it, Winter will be past and we will be enjoying another Spring. Here in Indiana we are having balmy weather now.  In the fifties maybe this week!

I hope this Christmas was a blessing to you.  Bye.