Let It Snow!

We are Christmasing up North with family and friends, remembering the reason for the season and thankful for our many blessings....and  wishing for a little snow.  Our skis are waxed and ready....

Finally last night, while we were enjoying a delicious dinner at Stella in Traverse City, it started coming down....

Now it is looking like Christmas in Northern Michigan.

We awoke to a winter wonderland on the peninsula.

M and I took a long walk through the woods, which is so pretty covered with snow.  Today we are digging ourselves out, tomorrow we are hitting the slopes!  Merry Christmas!

Slow Work

These wonderful masons are working hard every day in the freezing cold weather....so I feel guilty complaining...but Friends, this project was suppose to be finished three months ago and I want to hang a Christmas wreath on my front door.

  Clearly, after living on planet Earth for half a century, raising four kids, and surviving a year long battle with the big C,  I still have not learned patience. I want this construction project over, I want to figure out this new chapter of my life faster, and I want to be at my "safe five years clean" now.  

I had a great prayer taped to my mirror during treatment.  I think I need a review:

Patient Trust

by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.  We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.  We should like to skip the intermediate stages.  We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.  And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability---and that it may take a very long time.  And so I think it is with you; your ideas mature gradually--let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste.  Don't try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow.  Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be.  Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.

*****

Soul Work

Friends, I love the tradition of a Christmas tree!   Every year  I have a lot of fun needlepointing ornaments for my family.  Hanging them on the tree is like walking down memory lane.

 Obviously, this one is for S and T, our bride and groom.

C graduated this year with a BSN from St Mary's College.

 B has begun her college adventure at Notre Dame this year.

After 25 years, we have quite a few to hang.  This year all of T's are hanging in Nashville....

with my favorite newlyweds!  

Christmas Spirit

Big T and I had a splendid time celebrating the Christmas season this weekend with festive parties each night and even more fun during the day....

Big T and about 50 of his closest mates donned Santa suites and biked around town spreading Christmas cheer....the kids at Children's Mercy Hospital loved it.  How cool is it that Santa Rampages are sweeping the nation?

While Big T was biking, I was baking.  These sugared pecans are Big T's Grandmom's recipe. 

Here's what you need:

1 pound pecans

1 egg white

2 T water

1 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

In 2 large bowls:

In first bowl:  whip one egg white with 2 T water until frothy, coat pecans with this mixture

In second bowl: mix 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of cinnamon, combine with coated pecans

Spread out on large cookie sheets

Bake at 250F for 1 hour--gently stirring every 15 minutes.  Let cool on cookie sheets.

Friends, I have to hide these from Big T.

Every Christmas my prayer group gets together to exchange handmade gifts and celebrate the season.  

This Sunday we went to see Mother Teresa's movie.  Here message of doing little things with great love is incredibly inspiring. Afterwards, we went for a cocktail and exchanged our treats.  I am so blessed to be able to share the spirit of the season with these women.

Two Years Clean

Two years ago today I had my first surgery at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where the last remaining cancer was removed (along with my rectum, part of my colon and my lymph nodes).  Big T, Sister number 1 and my parents were all there to help cheer me on ("bye bye cancer, see ya never") and nurse me back to health.  I am profoundly grateful to my family and friends for all they did to help me recover.

My very talented surgeon reported to Big T that the surgery went perfectly.  I was up and walking the hospital halls the next day.  I am also deeply thankful for all the wonderful doctors and nurses that took such incredible care of me.

Today is the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe and I am especially grateful for her patronage two years ago today and every day.  Here is her shrine at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York in 2013.  Mary was a woman--of course she loves all those flowers.

The kids flew to New York after their final exams were finished, and we spent about two weeks there, while I recovered.

I love New York during the holidays....especially when I am cancer-free.  Thank You, God!!!

Adult Children 101

Do you remember this book?  I read it cover to cover during my first pregnancy.  Friends, where is the book entitled "What to Expect When Your Children Become Adults"?  I need that book, please.  

This little love is preparing for finals, hundreds of miles away, while battling a wicked virus. I want to pour her a nice cup tea and help her study.  I want to lecture her on sleeping more and socializing less.  I know I have to let her find her own way.  The aforementioned book needs to have a chapter that tells me how to do that.

This sweet angel, also hundreds of miles away, just broke up with her long-term boyfriend.  I want to pour her a generous glass of wine and take her shoe shopping.  I want to lecture her on the benefits of arranged marriages.  I know I have to let her find her own way.  Again, I am going to need step by step instructions.

Call me Daisy Bell

My awesome friend, Kathleen, encouraged me to join her biking group when I was finished with my cancer treatment.  She knew it would be a great way for me to exercise as my body healed from surgery.  It has turned out to also be an excellent way to catch up with three amazing women that keep me pedaling all year.

Friends, this is Kansas, and we bike on the Tomahawk and Indian Creek Trails.  We chat about our lives and solve all the world's problems as the four of us, two by two, "speed" along the path on our mom bikes with our matching Nantucket Bike Baskets.

This week it has been sunny and sixty, which makes for some great biking weather.  So Sunday afternoon I invited Big T, who has completed many triathlons, to join me for a ride...  

which resulted in no conversation and burning thighs....now I know why so many couples ride tandem bikes!

Roadtrip!

Big T and I hit the road this weekend to watch B play volleyball at Indiana University.  Friends, ever since I saw "Breaking Away" back in high school, I have wanted to go to Bloomington....this was my chance.  Living in the Heart of America, Big T and I are experienced road trippers....here are few things we must have when we hit the wide open highway:

 Did you know that Fiji is the only water bottle that is BPA Free?

This is really for Big T, the driver, to help him stay alert... 

Soulwork keeps me busy while I am watching the beautiful USofA speed by my window.  I finished these Santa ornaments on this trip...Happy Saint Nicholas' Day!

Big T and I have some driving rituals.  We start out every road trip saying a rosary...then we listen to an audiobook. We both laugh out loud at Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum Novels.  The incredibly talented Lorelei King reads this series--her performance is totally hilarious.

I found this new series at the library....not as funny as her Stephanie Plum Novels but still very entertaining.  

Indiana University is a beautiful campus.   I love that they still use their original field house!  I think it is so interesting to tour college campuses and see all the history alongside the new innovations.  We stayed at the Biddle Hotel located right in the student union (and directly across the street from the field house.)  It was very comfortable and convenient.

As always, Big T was in charge of our dining experience.  For lunch he chose Bub's Burgers & Ice Cream, because it was voted the best burger in Indiana.  Big T and B agree!

This smile was worth all those miles and more!

Gingerbread Lane

I spent the afternoon with some girlfriends having lunch, shopping and enjoying "Gingerbread Lane" at the Webster House in Kansas City. Webster House has a terrific restaurant and wonderful antiques, accessories, etc.  (I checked a lot of gifts off my list. )  Gingerbread Lane is a fundraiser for a very worthy cause: the Children's Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI).  I love seeing all the creativity!

This one was created by Andre's Confiserie Suisse... ahhhh....smell the chocolate....

My favorite...

First Place!

*****

B---I missed having you with me this year!