A Christmas Miracle on the 4th day of Christmas

Between breakfast, recipe research and a delicious cookie,

a bit before 11 AM, my Husband chatted me the

very good news that we have been praying for,

wishing for, hoping for, desperate for...

these last many months.  

It's a resolution that will still take sometime to unfold

and improve everything that has been so difficult for us for

over 2 years (with other things in the middle of that difficulty,

including losing +Patrick, terrible sickness, my broken ankle, 

losing my +Aunt Karen...) that we can say have been

some of the hardest days and years of our lives

and our married lives of now 6+ years.

It's a Christmas Miracle.

It's the beginning of, we pray, a time of restoration,

of living our lives as we had before this struggle began...

(really it began 3 years ago when we got the flu the first time... 

and then greatly intensified 2 years ago)... 

We are not fully out of the woods as the last years took a real

toll on us in so many ways and it will take time 

to rebuild things after such difficulties

but nonetheless, it is really a 

Christmas Miracle.

I am so very grateful. 

I am praying that this year will be a time of rebuilding 

for us and that we can begin to dream of doing more than

just doing our best to survive the difficulties.

Of course, like everyone's life, we have other things

that are still hard but the lifting of this one heavy difficulty

will help us deal with the rest of life with two feet on the ground

instead of two feet in poor shoes constantly in danger of falling on slippery terrain. 

The night of the 3rd day of Christmas I got a craving for my Mom's Chili. 

I hunted down the small recipe only to search my pantry and saw,

always astounding to me with my ridiculously full pantry, that I did not 

have either the tomato sauce or canned tomatoes! 

So that recipe will be, DV, for next week!

I ordered one can each and they are coming with my Friday morning

grocery delivery! My Mom's Chili recipe is below:

Meanwhile, I got out the lovely Amish cookbook that I was given by a dear friend

and found a simple meatball Stroganoff! 

Well, other than using butter for meatball frying + I used a whole can of water, 

I followed this recipe. ... 

the meat and onions browned up a lot to significant caramelization 

but not burning (but almost!)

 ... I did not drain the meat of any of the butter/oil....

and had a bit before Mr Husband got home and it's SO GOOD.

I was really pleased with it AND 

it was ready for dinner pretty much immediately when 

Mr Husband came home from work and that made me

extra happy! 

This is my new beautiful (and it smells fragrant, lovely!) tea cloth!

I washed a lot of little jars that a friend gave back to me

from various gifts of tea I had given her + a few more.

I am glad to have them, I hope to make more tea in the future!

I finally took apart our lovely Chocolate tower that I was

given for St Nicholas day!

The treasures are now tucked away in our pantry,

with many other treats that amaze me in the abundance of them.

I clearly need to have more people over for tea and chocolate! 

Since we have lots of glorious chocolate, I used some for the Christmas Cracker gifts!

Of course, that means that Mr Husband and I get some of it back, 

but every Christmas Cracker must have a gift!

Speaking of Christmas Crackers, I get mine here from England!

I get the kits which is why the gift part is my choice.

They are made in England I love them!

I bought more recently as I hope to have another Christmas dinner,

I got these in the standard size, I thought red would be perfect!

The Christmas Crackers in the picture above are the over-sized ones, FYI.

I set the table late in the night tonight

and am very happy with it!

I am glad that we have a life that is done in time,

and that we don't know our future; by which I mean that

there are really hard things in life or things we have to figure out

and we could never do it all at once or bear it all at once.

I think of Madeline L'Engle's Other Side of the Sun and how

the happy young times are hard to bear if reading them in the future

when one has dreams but not yet the heartache.

Both are real and life is hard but Christ is born at Christmas

to be with us, to bear the hard with us and in the end,

with our desire, carrying us HOME to be with Him forever....

May we take heart, no matter what we are facing, grieving or hoping for.