The North/East Winds doth blow

Hi Friends,

How are you all as the season of our festivities begin ?  Thanksgiving has past and now Christmas looms ahead.  Are you ready or like me just beginning to think about it.  For our family it will be a very different one from our previous Christmas Day celebrations.. we all go to John and Sarah's where John is usually in charge..or so he liked to think ! Sarah having been ever present at his elbow giving various instructions  LOL....This year Beth says she is going to try to give us all as near to normal a Christmas as possible and that will be different.    However before all that happens a lot of days lie in between and no doubt they will pass just as quickly as the whole of this year has.

I have got all my cards written and stamped...also Mary's,  so they will be posted fairly soon..maybe even at the weekend....weather permitting.....most of the overseas ones are now well on their way....Yesterday we spent a few hours wrapping up some gifts and finding out if any more needed to be bought...thankfully not much more.     You may have noticed that I said that the cards might go at the weekend ...weather permitting....The reason for that statement is that we are having a very early start to our winter. We don't normally get very low temps. and snow much before January and even then not a great deal of snow....however this year it has all started far to early for my liking...Since Friday our temp. has not risen above 0 indeed yesterday morning it was at -7 and we have had snow. Thankfully for us here in Box not an awful lot but enough to me inconvenient as it froze on landing making the roads like ice rinks. I stay at the top of an incline and no way can I get the car out when it is like that and so I have been stuck indoors...until that is this afternoon when the temp rose to the dizzy heights of +2 !! frost melted and I got the car out and up to see Sarah.  i was so pleased as I hadn't seen her since Friday. I knew she was ok as we keep in touch with phone calls and the carers have managed to get to her each day. They could not get their cars down the hill but parked on the main road and then walked up through the garden to get to her...(tonight the carer had to come to get her to bed at 4.30 !!! as they had been instructed not to attempt to get to her after it was too dark !) poor Sarah, however she is quite snug in bed and has the TV etc all on hand so will be ok. It just makes it a very long night and a short day...carer comes any time between 8.30 and 10am in the morning !! I am praying that perhaps when she is stronger ..soon ...she won't need the morning and evening carers.

You might have noticed that I have changed the photo on top to a new one for the Advent season..It is the nativity scene that I have had for many many years..around 50 years I should think as it is one Sarah sent to us when she lived in Germany as a Nanny..and that was in the mid 50s !! gosh can it be that long ago  !!

Now I am going to TRY to add a URL for you so that you can perhaps listen to it. It is of a young man playing the accordion. He was a young lad at the school where Mary was a house mother he has cerebral palsy and use of only his left side...he has turned into an amazing musician and is much in demand in Scotland, he has even gone with another ex house mother to South Africa to help her in setting up a charity to help a village there he was teaching the children how to play music and recording it for them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V-mQkleGQc

Good night all.    remember to keep LOVING ONE ANOTHER.