'Twas the Night Before Christmas

 Here we are ...

the month has flown by.

I did visit my surgeon on Tuesday.

The x-rays look good.

So I am done with doctor's visits.

Still rehabbing to increase mobility,

but done with the bills and doctor's visits.

Our Christmas has not gone quite as planned -

changes due to a "Bomb Cyclone."

We awoke Thursday, the start of our vacation,

ready to head to the "Ark Encounter."

The storm was coming, but we would finish our travel

and be ready for our visit on Friday.

Before we left, we checked the website,

the Ark was closed Friday due to impending storms.

Oh, well, we could still go visit family on Christmas Eve.

Or maybe not, the sun did not come out enough to clear the roads.

Kentucky, like NC, does not really have plows and other road machinery for storms.

The police and the governor encouraged people to stay home.

So it is Christmas Eve, and we are alone in our little house.

We are enjoying the Christmas lights;

we are enjoying Christmas music in the background;

a cranberry apple crisp is in the oven, perfuming the house with "Christmas";

we have enjoyed pot upon pot of hot coffee;

we have enjoyed skype calls, texts, emails, and regular calls with friends and loved ones.

We have been thankful for a warm house,

we have been thankful for protection in the storm

Our plans may have changed,

but, Praise God, He never changes.

'Tis the night before Christmas ...

and we rejoice in our Savior's birth.

Immanuel ... God with us.

How we have relished that fact in 2022.

Through moves,

though home purchases,

through injuries,

through inflation,

through job changes.

Our Savior is with us.

Our God offers us His presence - 

as a baby many years ago

and in our hearts today.