The spirit of Christmas

I've had a pretty tough time getting in the Christmas spirit this year, since hubby left for a business trip to Spain at the beginning of the month. Part of the fun of the Holiday season is all of the preparation, but having part of my little family missing has made it kind of glum. Of course, I do have Nadija to share the spirit with, which I whole heartily love, but it's just not the same with Hubby missing.

I've turned on the Christmas music, put up lights and religiously lit the tree every night to keep my heart afloat as I long for Hubby's return. It seems that no matter how hard I've tried I just can't beat the blues without him here - until today.

After lunch and a nap, I got Nadija ready to do a little shopping to collect all of the materials for my handmade Christmas. We headed off to the fabric store and while waiting in line to have our fabric cut, met the most wonderful person, a delightful woman named Debbie. She complimented Nadija's shopping cart cover and mentioned that she was making one for her grand-daughter for Christmas.

We sat and chatted while waiting our turn and I eventually got around to offering her some batting for her project. I have a huge bolt of warm and natural batting that was given to me by a complete stanger because she wanted it out of her craft room. I wanted to pass this deed onto someone else and offered it to Debbie. She gladly accepted and made plans for to pick it up at my house later in the evening.

Debbie came over just as I was sitting down to work on some gifts and brought her two adorable rat terriers with, which Nadija just loved. We chatted for quite a while, talking about dogs, crafts, etsy and whatever else the conversation lead to, exchanged businss cards and promised to keep in touch.

After she left, I had such a feeling of warmth inside that I was just glowing. With our Christmas music blaring, Nadija and I danced around while we made dinner and finally started to enjoy the season. As we sat down to eat there was a ring of the doorbell, and I assumed it was Debbie, thinking that maybe she forgot something.

Much to my suprise, I was greeted by a rather large group of school aged girls. I immediately asked if they were on a treasure hunt, as I have such fond memories of going on hunts around my neighborhood when I was their age. Even more to my suprise, they told me they were not on treasure hunt, that rather, they were caroling! I scooped Nadija out of her highchair and ran to the door to listen to the girls sing. As we stood in th doorway, we danced and sang along as the girls stood on my stoop, all bundled up and sang one of my all time favorite Christmas carols - Winter Wonderland!

I could not have asked for a better way to jump start my Christmas spirit. This is definitely a night that I will never forget! Thank you Debbie, and thank you neighborhood girls for making my season bright!