Merry Christmas everybody!!! 

I love Christmas for so many reasons. 

Right now I'm writing this under a blanket on the couch, and Corinne is asleep and Stevie is playing a video game.

Christmas I feel at peace.

I stare at the tree for as long as is humanly possible. Preferably while some form of Christmas music is playing. I did this at my parent's house, while I was home. I just held Corinne in my arms, and stared at the tree, and her (I switched on and off). 

I thought about how people have to work together to get that tree up. They talk about the ornaments and they can't do it with a cell phone in their hands. They could silently decorate the tree, too, which is fine. But...they do it together. And I like that a lot.

I thought about people who need help, and they need help all year, and not just Christmas. 

I want to help them. I'm going to write to Dr. Drew's Lifechangers for a couple of different families I've been praying for. I think that people ultimately want to help each other, and maybe if I can explain the cases of these families clearly enough, maybe they can be helped by that show, because it has the resources to help them.

At least I could try.

I also was thinking about how I really want to give Corinne a good example and show her how important it is to volunteer and help others. I hope that I can show her that example all the time - how to help other people no matter what.

I was looking forward to giving gifts this Christmas. I wasn't even expecting anything back. Even when I was involved in Secret Santas, I was thinking "If they can't do it this year, I'm fine with it." I don't know - things happen. But, they all gave us gifts. We got way more than I expected, and I feel like I won the lottery. I feel like that all the time, though. I feel like that when I wake up in the morning. I look forward to things. I read once that even if you try to look at chores as an event that you could look forward to, like "I get to work out! I get to do the laundry! I get to do those dishes!" You actually start to enjoy life more. And it really does work. Perception is reality...and why not try to make all of those things that suck up so much time...a little bit more welcome and nice, in your life? I don't know...I just like doing that.

So anyway - I was so happy just to see my family and friends. Getting gifts was a bonus, and an absolutely amazing one. 

Stevie surprised me with a Kindle!!!!!!! I was so so so so happy about it. I still am. I took "Bridget Jones's Diary" out of the library with it and will be reading it tonight after this.

What's that you say, I have time to read tonight??? 

I actually think I do! Corinne has slept through the night 3 times in a row! 3 times!!! I can't believe my eyes as I type this, but it is true. I've had 8 full hours of sleep three nights in a row. 

This was a great Christmas Gift from our little girlie!! She is two months now, by the way. 10 pounds, 8 ounces. She wore a little tu-tu outfit today. She wore red overalls yesterday (Christmas Eve and her two month birthday) with a white top and a collar. I couldn't put her down all weekend. All I want to do is snuggle her all the time. My time is precious with her, it goes away so fast and then I have to go to work and I can't see her.

I do love my job, but I love her so much, I need to snuggle her and be with her every moment that I do see her just to make up for lost time!!! 

She smiled and laughed so much this Christmas. I think she loves it, too, like her mama. 

I've been writing her letters, so she can read them when she's older. She's my baby and I want her to know that she's always on my mind and her daddy and I love her with all our hearts. I also thought it'd be fun for her just to read through them and see some of the things we did when she was small.

Well, I really should go, especially if I want to read some Bridget Jones! That is such a funny book I can't wait to read it again - and I NEVER re-read books! 

If I do have to get up at 3 am this morning I'm cool with that, for the record. I just hope it doesn't happen because I am even cooler with sleeping for eight hours in a row.

OK before I really go, I do want to show you some of my novel I've been writing. 

So, if you want, you can read the start to it.......I finally have the guts to post a little bit of it here.


Night fell on the world with a clumsy splatter of stars spackled onto the sky.
Emma Baxter wore thick black eyeliner, a black raincoat and an ivory dress that hung to her knees.
The top of her boots just touched her dress, while she leaned forward in a spell of concentration.
Her brown eyes squinted and her brow furrowed deeply as she stared at that freckled sky.
Her dirty-blonde hair reflected the starlight and she was staring patiently into a very large telescope.
She had pulled her hair into a loose ponytail, then drew back, craned her neck and looked upward with
her naked eyes. The wind breathed a damp, low howl through neighboring willow trees; the sound
lingered in the air until it resounded into a whisper, tickling Emma's ears. She shivered, then expressed
her thoughts out loud in a low, pondering tone of voice, "I wish I knew where they're hiding."

Her pensive mood seemed to purpurt her pulse faster and faster, and Emma suddenly grew very silent.
That is, for the time being.

I.

Sunlight reached through the windowpane and kissed Emma square on the mouth.

Six o'clock in the morning is early for many people, but not for Emma Louise Baxter. She had a close relationship
with the sun, it seemed. Every morning, without fail, she knew when to shed her heavy cocoon of blankets and,
every day, without fail, she felt her mood shift slightly as the sun would grumpily shift positions in the somber sky.
Emma herself was not a grumpy person, it is worthwhile to note. She was, however, usually on the move in some way
or another, and sometimes that can initiate some form of grumpiness in a person. That's an understandable notion. At least Emma
thought so.

Regardless of all of this, Emma lived alone (for the time being). Her history resides with a sizeable family of five
children, she herself being the fourth-born, and one of two girls and three boys. She was relatively close
with the others but she preferred to be independent, choosing to live in an apartment in town and pursuing a
Pilot's degree  at the local college.
Emma lived in a place very similar to this place we call Earth. The sky was a deep blue on the nice days and turned dark grays and blacks and deep oranges on the stormy nights, very close to the colors we are used to, here. In fact, most of the languages were also remarkably similar. There were people on this world, and creatures and places that are very much like what and who we know. But there were some things we might not be used to that was on this earth. There were giants and creatures that people here might have only seen wandering about in their minds, while the moonlight is still touching their windowpanes outside, and the wind whispers softly through the tree branches.

                                                                     

 It is a world called Lifing, and in it were rules very similar to rules we have on Earth. Emma was a young woman, who, like everyone in her cultural hemisphere called Cana, had to make a decision at 18. She had two choices before her. Choice one was to stay at home and work at a small job making small earnings and coming face to face with economic woe, hardship and social disdain. Choice two was to go to Aviation School, and become a pilot.

In her mid-twenties, she was often speculating something, and this speculation quickly grew to a deep and
downright analyzation as well as investigation as she developed any thought. For example, the subject of her current
scrutiny was her morning toast, and how it was not as enjoyable as a morning english muffin, because, to her,
the spaces known as "knooks and crannies" in fact did make a difference in the breakfast experience. The holes
in the muffin provided for several delicious pockets of homemade marmelade jam to invade her taste buds and
surrender them no questions asked in a matter of seconds.

Click.

The radio was switched on. Also a part of the morning ritual, Emma began humming and stepping to music. It did not
matter what type of music, it just had to be music. She had to hear it every morning. She was not a "creature" of
habit, as some might say, but she did enjoy a habit or two such as this.



That's all for now! 

Merry Merry Merry Christmas to everybody !!!!! Please - if you read this and want to let me know anything about the novel excerpt, if you liked it or would want to read more - please let me know  - if you could send me an email or text or facebook message or something - I know that this blog itself is difficult to comment on...but that would be great if you could let me know! If not it's ok too - either way hope you enjoyed it at least a little bit.