Reflections from Crumbly Acres: 🎁 A time of reflection

I am grateful to be living here. While my mind overnight goes to difficulties, or other issues, I think of all those suffering. Putin bombed Ukraine Christmas Day. Trump's threats against us here in Canada are laughable.

Today is my 68th birthday. It's a time for reflection. My birth mother gave birth to me, then they took me away from her. She told me, the one time we met, that she felt as if she'd lost her right arm. I was sent to a foster home for 6 months. My adoptive family always did well by me. I was told early on I was adopted. We had an old, old picture book that told a story about a family happily waiting for a child. I was loved. I was blessed.

I told my client the story about my parents waiting for the call. They'd lost a child to a stillbirth, another was a badly malformed fetus. In June, mom and dad were working in the same open concept office. Mom got the call at work. She stood up, incredibly excited, and yelled out to the entire office, "We have a baby!" There was clapping, joy, tears.

Back to the present. Our Ottawa kids are on their way today to celebrate Christmas with us. We have the turkey out on the back deck. It was -11℃ overnight the first night, -8℃ this morning, so it is a tad frozen. No way to treat a fresh turkey, but what can one do? I guess I ought to put it in the refrigerator.

Cinnamon appreciated the light snow on Dec. 23. His mice friends were well-hidden under the snow. It's rather like sending kids out at recess for a short outdoor play. It takes 5 minutes to get on snowsuits, boots, hats, mitts, and in 10 minutes they were cold. We were all happy to get outdoors, though.