Saturday, December 27, 2008


I am back from visiting with family in Birmingham over the holiday and have to say we had a wonderful time in the shorter than expected visit. Ali and Steve were there and we were able to talk with Patrick from his base in Basra. Even BB got to speak to him which she loved! Steve said the Army Captain seemed to be in good spirits under the circumstances.

When we arrived back at Maplewood, we had five days of mail that was delivered earlier that day to our doorstep to sort through. We were surprised to see that our contractor/friend Marek had dropped of a collection of Polish sausages, pierogies and a huge cheese danish! Most of the Christmas cards we received with this delivery had family letters in them with updates of events of their lives through this year. I really like these and might have to crank one out next year. I just love a good story of the human spirit. Each letter spoke of trying times and small and large victories their families went through. Layoffs, a death in the family, a new work position and a rare medical condition were all mentioned in these. One closed with hope that the coming year would be brighter. Knowing this family and their spirit, I am certain it will be.

I have lots of photos to tone and upload to the computer in the coming days. They capture the general feeling of the joyfulness and glee of a family gathering at Christmas. It is reassuring to me to have this feeling. The contentment of knowing that we are here for each other, to share our experiences and to ride out this wild life together. Forget about the gifts — this is what I want most at Christmas, at least at this point in time!

3 comments:

Jeff Branch said...

Glad to see that you made it home OK. We so enjoyed seeing you, Steve and Ali. Can't wait to see the pictures.

Unknown said...

Couldn't agree with you more sis! Love you to pieces. Tell Steve how good it was to see him!

Anonymous said...

It was so great to see you guys! We really appreciated all the trouble you went through to get here!

Jana