So, Christmas cards, such a wonderful old fashioned tradition.  I used to be amazing at it, though sometimes my “Christmas letter” became a January one instead.  

Wonderful things happened in our families this year.  July 1st our very first grandchild, Remington James Spaulding was born and we were thrilled to spend ten days out there just about a week after he was born.  Mom and Dad were grateful to get up, feed and change him and then hand him off and go back to bed, leaving Dave, Alyssa and me to envy whichever one of us got to hold him for the next two hours.   Just about the best “vacation” I’ve ever had!

Then October 13th my very first grand-nephew was born, Liam David Corr.  I haven’t had as much of a chance to hold him, but that’s understandable since Lisa Willson-Doe is his grammy!  ; )  Thanks for sharing Lisa!  (Oh, and Mel & Chris, too.  Right.)  ; )

Okay, I might have had a bit too much fun with that one.  

The rest of my life . . . well, Aly moved to Cali to be Remington’s nanny.  So that was great for her, hard on us.  

Spiritually I have been doing a search through the Bible from start to finish, marking down whenever music or singing is mentioned.  Had a bit of a conundrum about the word “praise” which happens a lot, but eliminated it because quite often it is referring to saying grateful adoring things to the Lord, not necessarily in a musical way.  I’m in Proverbs at the moment and not finding anything there yet about music . . . leading me to wonder certain things.  Like “Are musicians just so obviously unwise, that we aren’t even mentioned?”  OR  “Perhaps a life of music leads to folly?”  I decided to decide that we are on the creative side of wisdom and the folly/wise line runs straight through the middle depending on mostly the other factors in our personalities.  That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

Speaking of stories, I took a writing class this Fall at the Boston Public Library, which was extremely helpful and encouraging.  Nothing like reading what you’ve written off the cuff in the last fifteen minutes and have OTHER WRITERS say “Wow, that’s great!  I really liked . . .”  And the technical information was invaluable.  And has given me the impetus to write twenty-three chapters in the novel I’m currently working on.   (Okay, it was a total re-write and I stopped in the middle and wrote the last eleven chapters before going back to work the middle again, but it seems to have worked, so judge away!)  

But writing and babies aside, it has been an extremely difficult year.  Painful.  Get in an RV and just drive away painful.  Which, of course, we can’t do because we are responsible adults and people are counting on us.  But we can dream.

Dream, and pray, and wait on the Lord, trusting that He truly does delight in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love.  (Psalm 147, verse eleven)  (Make all your verses found in rhyming places – it’s so much easier to remember where they are!)

Dave has been doing a LOT of playing both on guitar and on keyboards, as well as singing.  He is amazing at all of it, and more than just me says that and often.  He has been writing songs too.  Great songs.  The highlight of my day is when I crawl my weary aching body into bed and hear him begin to play and sing them down in the living room.  As a wordsmith he is right up there with “All Time Low.”  (One of my favorite, if irreverent, bands.)  Mostly blues songs, but he does have a few praise songs that are really cool, too.  

I say a BIG word of thanks to the really awesome people at the Newton Campus of FCC Kingston Church for allowing him to try them out on them from time to time.  They are oddly good at the one fashioned after an Irish drinking tune . . . but I digress.  (Just picture Martin Luther in your mind, lifting his humungous stein filled with beer – I mean water – and shouting, “To Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior!”)  Yes.  He did do that – and more than once!

Anyways.  

We are hopeful (super extra prayerful) that things will change soon, get less painful, less stressful, less of a constant heartache, but we state emphatically that if they do not, we will still praise our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because we know we are only looking at the bottom of the tapestry, where Satan likes to make our minds dwell, but He is creating the whole tapestry and making beauty from the ugly, knotty, underside.  I may not see that beauty until I see Him face to face, but I know it WILL be worth it.

And, no, I’m not mailing this to anyone (well, maybe – nope, I won’t) but to all who have enjoyed my intermittent blogging and to those who have not yet tasted of the wandering mind of Cher, thank you and ENJOY!

Merry Christ’s Birth (which Dave would like you to know is not actually in December), May the Lord Bless you richly with His wondrous lavish Love throughout the coming year.  

Please feel free to text or call us (if you have our cells,) comment, PM us, email us, or even stop by.  We would love to hear from you, get caught up on your lives and praise God together for the amazing way you make us better.

The End.

(I have to say that or I’ll just keep on writing)  (Cher, stop it!)  (Okay.  I’m done now.)(Really.  I am.) 

; )