As I’ve mentioned, it’s been a really busy fall. Between the joy and excitement of my first two novels being published, and a health issue in the family, we’ve been out straight for months. At times, it’s felt like we were behind in some of the “normal” things we do in the fall, such as making jam, canning, or making many of our holiday gifts. With our children being older, and the craziness, we didn’t even carve any pumpkins for Halloween, and we were woefully behind in our December holiday decorating. Normally, by the end of the first week of December, we have our beams decorated, house decorations have been scattered throughout the house, and we have planned out when the tree will go up, etc. This year, it just didn’t seem to be happening…

Today, we put on holiday music, put up the tree and decorated it, put the holiday village around on the new mantles, and put the candles in the windows. As the sun set and the lights became more clearly visible, everything looks beautiful, and now it finally feels like the holiday season.