Been doing chores today getting an early start for my family’s holiday dinner the Saturday before Christmas. I’ll set places for 42 this year. The Easter Bunny is bringing a new little one to our McMurray family in April so we’ll be 43 next year. I love setting the tables with the Christmas china I’ve been collecting since I was a teenager. Scaling back the Christmas decorations this year. Had a tree in every room last year, even the bathrooms.

Yep, I’m the crazy tree lady. Even had a tree once decorated with engineering tools and medicine bottles for my oldest son, an engineer, and his wife, a pharmacist. Decorated a tree for Chief once with vegetable seed envelopes. I’ve had Pokémon Christmas trees and dinosaur Christmas trees. I have a beautiful tree for my daughter each year that’s decorated with little shoes and purses and girlie ornaments. And a bird Christmas tree full of songbird ornaments and tiny china plates featuring each state’s bird. The bird tree might become a garland for the living room mantle this year. Makes me tired just writing about them.

It was cool on our dog walks this morning. Penelope prissed around in her striped sweater. She’s always frisky when it’s cold. My friend in Minnesota wandered his slice of heaven in 0 degree weather so I should be ashamed to be cold at 46 degrees. The sky was a melted vanilla today with layers of gray and purple and blue. I think Mother Nature dipped her water color brush in different colors and let them splash on Father Sky’s overcast sky canvas. I missed Father Sky kissing the sun goodnight at dusk and missed the pageantry of his hanging the stars and moon. Just went outside and there are no jewels in the sky. Everyone is hunkered down under their overcast cloud covers.

I made oldest sister-in-law a caramel cake tonight for her Christmas party. Can’t ice a cake anymore with my arthritis but I made a bunt cake and poured the icing over the cake, looks pretty and pretty delicious. Yes, I licked the beaters and so did Penelope. I was sitting at the kitchen table waiting for the cake’s icing to harden and I started wondering if God is the icing on our life’s cake. Pondering that thought, I realized God is the cake and the icing is all the joy and blessings he ices our lives with. We can put together a cake without spiritual layers but we won’t enjoy the cake without God’s grace surrounding the layers. His icing makes the baking experience worthwhile. We can look to God’s presence as an addition, like vanilla flavoring, that makes our lives joyful and satisfying. God is the cake and we’re the crumbs God gathers up to ice with his love. Psalm 16:5 reads, “You, Lord, are all I have, and you give me all I need; my future is in your hands.”

Been reading quotes today about rain and wind. I think Winnie the Pooh has the right idea about a rainy day, “When life throws you a rainy day, play in the puddles.” That’s a good idea. If it’s raining in your life right now, tap dance around in the puddles and let God serve as your umbrella. A smile is a good umbrella, too. Amy Miles says, “A rainy day is a special gift to readers.” Chief and I did a lots of reading by the fire on rainy days like today but since he’s gone I haven’t been able to concentrate long enough to read a book. I used to read a novel every day. Guess those days are gone. I’m reading short daily devotionals, an occasional biography, and searching for quotes in various sources for inspiration.

There are lots of beautiful quotes about the wind — the wind under your wings, the wind of grace, the winds of heaven. My favorite quote I scribbled on a piece of paper today is, “The wind is us — it gathers and remembers all our voices, then sends them talking and telling through the leaves and fields,” Truman Capote. Chief used to say every word we’ve ever uttered is on the wind blowing some where and maybe one day we would learn to hear those words and could listen to Thomas Jefferson and William Faulkner. I’d love to hear Mark Twain’s voice.

In our lives we can move with the wind or move against the wind. The wind can lift a little leaf up, send it flying, help the birds fly with its currents. We can choose to use a gentle wind to lift up those around us or we can bring the storm winds of unhappiness by our words and actions. Mikhail Lermontov said, “Happiness comes the way the wind blows.” That’s so true with the winds that blow across the years of our lives. We can accept the wind gusts and know that God will trim our sails and set us right again. Or we can fight them, constantly frustrated when life doesn’t go our way. We can dance in the winds of heaven or give up and become stagnant.

“A man without God is not like a cake without raisins; he is like a cake without the flour and milk; he lacks the essential ingredients.”— Fulton J. Sheen