My Sister

Despite having painted a doodle of a Christmas tree and my intentions of using it as a Christmas card, life had other plans.  Unlike most years, I did not send any cards out this time around.  Business is always at its slowest this time of year and I could not even buy stamps to mail the cards!  This financial pinch caused us to get creative in celebrating the season.  We cut down our own tree out here on the ranch.  We developed our own little family traditions that do not require financial expenditures, such as baking cookies, sharing some hot chocolate, listening to Christmas music, and reading stories.  Togetherness was all that mattered.  The kids thought of gifts they would give to baby Jesus and presented their own drawings and cards to Him.

The kids enjoyed decorating their harvested tree.

We then received some payments from customers a few days before Christmas.  We still decided that we would keep the gifts down to a bare minimum.  So each child received one gift from Santa!

My sister then did something amazing to lift my spirits this season!  Remember how I was going to do the Sketchbook project?  I never did - life, busy, etc.  However, she sent me a sketchbook for Christmas.  When I opened it up there was a large sticker inside the front cover on which she wrote, "Two Sisters Sketchbook Project - Swap Date December 2011.  I have one, you have one - have fun!  Work w/any medium, pick any theme, be brilliant, release, exhale, pray."  I cannot describe the joy at having received this creative and inspiring gift!  What fun!  A chance to share our work with each other!  She is not an artist who paints and draws so much as she is an artist who loves to design and decorate interiors.  In fact, she finally got into the field professionally.  So I look forward to seeing how she will fill up her sketchbook!

Now that I am sufficiently inspired, I can move on with the year.  Life is unpredictable as I mentioned last time.  I have many more stories to share that have taken place in the last two months.  Some are not for the squeamish, and some are miraculous.  I hope you'll join us!