So overflowing is his kindness toward us that he took away all our sins through the blood of his Son, by whom we are saved; and he has showered down upon us the richness of his grace—for how well he understands us and knows what is best for us at all times.
God has told us his secret reason for sending Christ, a plan he decided on in mercy long ago; and this was his purpose: that when the time is ripe he will gather us all together from wherever we are—in heaven or on earth—to be with him in Christ forever.
Ephesians 1:7-10, Living Bible
Farewell 2013. So glad to see you finally move on.
Christmas came and went unheralded at our house this year. To quote D “We did have an unusual Christmas. For the first time in our marriage, we did not celebrate in the “normal” manner due to Ellen being sick. She got to feeling bad two days before the day and is still fighting it. So, she slept and I made the days go by. Not what I hope will happen ever again…..but some things are out of our control.”
Miserable sinusitis. So NOT fun. When this happens I sleep. For hours…for days. Hasn’t happened for years. Not sure why this Christmas, except we’ve had “unhealthy air quality” for weeks on end and no rain at all, with a mold count of 9 out of a possible 10 on the weatherman’s scale.
I did manage to stay vertical long enough for Kai Li to open her Christmas “sockie.” It’s something she looks forward to each year. Seriously…she knows when the tree goes up and the stocking comes out, so she watches until it’s filled, then opens it on Christmas morning with such joy. It’s FUN for both of us to share it with her.
This year she found some cookies, a football—that she completely ignored, and—to add to her already overflowing stanch of stuffies—a bright red sock. She’s carried it everywhere for the past few days.
Kai’s Christmas Gifts 
So much fun to watch the kids enjoy their gifts.
D and I don’t exchange gifts anymore. ♥ Just love ♥. We both have everything we could ever ask for. If we want something, we just go get it. Adding more stuff we don’t need or want would simply be extravagant. We usually do Christmas (and other Holidays, too) alone. Just the two–oops! three–of us. So not having people around is not unusual.
As D said, when one of us is missing – that’s unusual.
I wish, sincerely, Christmas was the only unusual thing we experienced in 2013.
Leaving a laundry list of those things unpublished is quite likely in the best interest of my dear readers, but just let me say “there have been several occasions in this year of 2013 when it’s been tempting to ask God,
‘Is there somebody else up there I can talk to?'”
So…I’m glad to see the year move on.
Holding out high hopes for 2014 though! Also, trusting in God’s grace for each day. He’s never failed us yet. …he has showered down upon us the richness of his grace—for how well he understands us and knows what is best for us at all times.
Rich blessing for 2014 on you all.
Contentment Cottage 
Sorry to hear you’ve been feeling poorly. What’s this about you and Dick being alone on holidays. I thought you have grown children and grandchildren. You’ve always been Nana Ellen. How come you’re alone! OK…never mind. Love you anyway. Happy New Year to you both.
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Hey LouAnn, Thanks for your visit. To answer your question: yeah we have three grown sons between us. But we also each have a divorce between us and them. If we’ve learned anything in thirty-plus years of this marriage it’s that making a successfully blended “family” out of two broken households is a rare blessing indeed. For the most part each of us proved to be “the person my parent is married to now.”
I started the Nana Ellen website back in 1996 when some of the eleven grandchildren were still small enough to enjoy the stories n’ stuff. Thing is, I wasn’t really Nana – just the person married to the grandpa. D was told what I wrote and shared here wasn’t “real” and so those children were never allowed to visit online. Since the five of them lived on the East Coast, they never visited in real life either. Two more lived in the Mid-west, in broken homes of their own. When they were old enough for their Dad to suggest a relationship with Nana, they were so completely NOT interested it was useless to pursue it. That leaves one son and two grandchildren who live about an hour away. For awhile we attempted to maintain the illusion of “family” but it never worked very well. As the children grew to adulthood it became more and more apparent they weren’t interested either. Plus, everyone was always so busy, busy, busy…we finally took the hint and stepped back.
Sometimes it was hard. But by that time there were people like you who followed Nana Ellen online faithfully, so I changed it to Contentment Cottage and moved forward. As Albert Einstein is quoted as saying,
“Life is like a bicycle to keep your balance you must keep moving.”
Happy New Year back…love you too.
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