A Comforting Prayer

During this Christmas season 2025, I thank the Lord for progress that has come from many sources to aid my recovery from hard things life this side of Heaven brings. 

The following is a prayer posted by Sandy A. on Facebook from Faithful Grace that says it well. Not everyone feels the joy and peace this season is meant to be. This prayer is helpful.

from FaithfulGrace.com

                           

Lord, breathe peace into the memories that still hurt, the ones that replay in my mind and steal my joy even years later.

These wounds from the past feel as fresh as the day they happened, and I'm tired of being held hostage by moments I can't change or undo.

Teach me that healing doesn't mean forgetting, that I can remember without reliving the pain, that You can redeem even the memories that cut the deepest.

I confess I've tried to bury these memories, to pretend they don't affect me anymore, when really they're still shaping how I see myself, how I trust others, how I move through the world.

Help me bring these painful memories into Your light instead of keeping them hidden in the dark where shame and hurt continue to fester and grow.

Remind me that You were there in those moments even when I couldn't feel You, that You grieve what was done to me, that You want to heal not just the original wound but the ongoing ache it's left behind.

Give me the courage to let You into the tender places, to stop protecting these hurts and start releasing them to You, to trust that Your peace can reach even the memories I thought would always haunt me.

Let Your healing presence wash over these painful memories, taking the sting out of them, replacing hurt with comfort, bringing peace where there's been torment, until I can finally look back without breaking. Amen.

Until next time, grace and peace.

(I'm turning off comments for this post)

Gary and Barbara's Christmas Newsletter 2025

 

Christmas 2025 
Stetson Mansion
Deland, Florida

We hope our newsletter finds you well and able to enjoy this special time of year, however "enjoy" is defined by you.

Our annual Christmas/year-end letter sent to everybody we have ever known and loved is now officially replaced with a blog post. Increased postage rates and arthritic hands have played a big part in this decision. Also, social media enables us to share more pictures. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so maybe our snapshots will speak more than we write. 

Since our first date was just before Christmas, we can honestly say this is our 5th year to celebrate together. Scratching our heads, we wonder how time has flown by so quickly?!

While during these 5 years there have been some major surgeries and half a dozen ER trips, we have still been blessed with good times, a lot of laughter, and a surprising amount of travel.  Neither of us is getting any younger but we are making the best of every day, grateful to be able to say that.

On the subject of travel, we are never away from home for long, which makes it easier to pack a smaller suitcase, avoiding heavy luggage. 

We continue to ride our bicycles nearly every day, which is a wonderful benefit to living in North Central Florida. We bought a good bike rack so we can load up to explore some paved trails, but most of the time we pedal 4-5 miles through the multi-purpose asphalt paths in our +55 community.

We make trips to Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell to visit the resting places of our dear ones. Christmas is an especially beautiful time to ponder memories and blessings.

In February we drove to the Everglades to ride an airboat through the grassy marshes, spying birds, turtles, and gators along the way. 

We drove down to Key West for a brief overnight visit. The weather in February is good for Key West, which translates to "a lot of people." The line to get our picture taken at the southernmost point in the USA was looong, so a passerby took this picture of us a few feet north of the monument. 

We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at an outdoor seaside cafe. Yes, it's true, Key West has chickens walking all over. They were underfoot as we ate but they were not a bother.

Also in February we took a day trip to the Greek town of Tarpon Springs, sitting on the Gulf Coast at the mouth of the Anclote River. After a wonderful lunch literally on the water at Dimitri's (doesn't that sound Greek?!!), we took a tour on a boat that collects sponges from the river bottom. The diver gave a very informative talk on how that is done and then shared his helmet with any who wanted to try it on.

In April some of Gary's family did the traveling to see us. We had lunch at Crump's Landing in Homosassa, and enjoyed the mermaids at Weeki Wachee.

On another day of their visit we took them to La Chua Trail in Gainesville to see the gators. There were more than we could possibly count, sunning themselves on the beach.

This year we have visited two historical farms within an  hour's drive (or less of our home). We prefer to embrace the history of "old Florida" instead of the theme parks. 

Gary poked around the barn of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of The Yearling and Cross Creek. The house tour was very interesting .....

The story was told that for her housewarming party, her dear uncle was not able to attend. He sent in his place a large bouquet of flowers, which she placed in the brand new toilet for her guests to see as they toured the home.

We enjoyed lunch at the rustic Yearling Restaurant in nearby Hawthorne where it is (quoting the Internet description) "well-known for serving local exotic carnivore edibles, as well as the usual fare." We opted for entrees that were not "exotic" but enjoyed the themed decor. 

A few weeks later we visited Dudley Farm National Historic Landmark in Newberry, Florida. The plantation was abundant with history as we learned how the family not only met their needs agriculturally but also contributed greatly to the development of their part of Florida.

Gary does his own laundry at home, so he felt very comfortable in this setting. (need I point out who is the comedian in this marriage?)

July took us to Camp Blanding in Starke, Florida to a World War II Museum. Gary explained to me the particulars of a properly made military bed. 

It was during this very interesting tour that we realized we should pursue the idea of visiting the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. 

So this fall we did just that -- took a road trip to New Orleans (NOLA)! The National World War II Museum is top-notch. Made up of some 7 galleries, it's an immersive experience that informs, shocks, and humbles the visitors. I think I've matured some from learning about that time in our nation and our world history. 

On another day we rode on the top level of the hop-on hop-off tour bus -- twice! It's an excellent way to get a birds-eye view of the city while listening to descriptions of everything we passed. 

On another road trip, we headed way up north. While everybody knows New Orleans sits on the Mississippi River, for this trip we were within an hour or so of where the great river actually begins. I thought it would be fun to get a Christmas card picture with the river behind us but later realized my hair was blowing straight up! So instead it's buried in this Christmas letter - ha-ha!

On this trip we visited family members, some of whom we had not yet met. This year Gary was blessed with his 4th Great-grandchild. Until this trip, he had met only one, the red-haired cutie who came to see us earlier in the year. In this visit we met the Minnesota Twins and their new baby brother. While the littles stole the show, we enjoyed visiting with all the adults.

On our way home from the north, we spent a couple of hours at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It had some mighty pretty cars in there!!! And the history of the Corvette was interesting, too.

Our most recent adventure was only about 60 miles from home. The Stetson Mansion, built by the creator of the famous Stetson hats, is another historical treasure. At this time of year it is absolutely, thoroughly and most abundantly decked out inside with Christmas decor. There are multiple nativity scenes in every room, as well as reminders of Santa Claus, the Grinch, snow scenes, and toys. 

Our home is not as thoroughly decorated as the Stetson Mansion, but it's plenty for us. It's our haven where we can shut the door on drama, stress, and conflict to enjoy peace, good food, coziness, and the blessings of love. 

That is our desire for you this Christmas season and into the New Year. Merry Christmas!

Composed/written by Barbara

Edited/proof read by Gary

Christmas Tradition Preferences

Stetson Mansion

We toured Stetson Mansion in Deland, Florida this week. I intend to write more about it in a future post, but the above is a teaser snapshot. If you want to check out the website and make reservations for a tour of their fabulous Christmas decorations, click here. Reservations are required. It was a very well-attended event the day we were there.

Stetson Mansion

Here are Joyce's Hodgepodge questions for this week. My responses are in green. If you want to participate on your blog, click here.

1. Do you struggle with the commercialization of the holiday season? .Yes. What helps you keep your focus when the season's busyness and commercialism start to take over? .The sacred music of Christmas calms me. The lyrics of the Biblical Christmas story as well as instrumental performances -- settle me.  

2. What's one small thing you want to savor before the year ends? For many years my family had a tradition of beef brisket that I marinated for hours on Dec. 23rd and then cooked in a slow oven all day on Christmas Eve. 

We often would do some sight-seeing as a family all day on December 24th in addition to the Christmas Eve church service. Coming home to the scent of the BBQ was something we all enjoyed so much. That was the main dish for our Christmas Eve dinner, usually accompanied with corn on the cob, a green salad, and dinner rolls. 

We drank Sparkling Cider in Christmas stemware and then had a good dessert, which was often Red Velvet cake. 

A lot has changed since those days. Now it's too much effort for just the two of us when we can buy equally wonderful BBQ to bring home. 

So, to answer the question, I'd like to savor some BBQ brisket (or pulled pork) before year's end -- maybe on New Year's Eve?

3. December 9th is National Christmas Card Day. Do you still send Christmas cards? 

Yes, but I also do a lot of my cards via email and Facebook. I have morphed from the annual printed newsletter to a special blog post devoted for that purpose (yet to be written, by the way). If so, does yours include a photo or is it a more traditional card, or maybe homemade? I do a mix of traditional (store-bought) cards and photo cards. How do you feel about the tradition of exchanging cards at the holidays? I like it and enjoy receiving the cards, but postage rates have steadily increased in recent years, so mailing cards is getting to be awful pricey. I've noticed we don't receive as many as we used to.

4. What's your least favorite holiday related task? Taking down the decorations. What's your favorite?Turning on the tree lights.

5. Let's do a little holiday this or that?

~ shopping or wrapping 

~ baking or decorating

~ eggnog or wassail 

~ real tree or artificial

~ turkey or ham turkey for Thanksgiving and Ham for Christmas Day (or leftover BBQ, see #2 above)

~ white lights or colored lights -- both!

~ ugly sweaters or matching pjs.  We don't really get into either of these traditions. 

~ peppermint or cinnamon, both!

~ presents Christmas Eve or presents Christmas Day. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. I have been a fan of Mary Engelbreit's art, her sense of humor, home decorating style, and greeting cards since about 1985. Here are some of my favorites of her Christmas artistry:

My favorite of these is the one in the center of the top row that says, "Hark! Harold the Angel sings". 🤭

Scripture does not specifically say the angels were singing but rather, speaking. However I won't split hairs on the matter and just enjoy the carols proclaiming the arrival on earth of God Himself(!!!) in the form of a newborn baby of virgin birth.

Hark! the herald angels sing,

"Glory to the newborn King:

peace on earth, and mercy mild,

God and sinners reconciled"

Joyful, all ye nations, rise,

join the triumph of the skies;

with t'angelic hosts proclaim,

"Christ is born in Bethlehem!"

Hark! the herald angels sing,

"Glory to the newborn King."

Until next time, grace and peace.

Ramblin' Through Christmas in Florida

 

December snow 2016

In spite of the title on today's post, my first snapshot is from my last Christmas in Colorado. I had hung these balls on the Maple tree in our front yard knowing snow would adorn them before the season was over. 

At the time I did not know it would be my last Christmas in the Rocky Mountain West. Surprising decisions (all for the good) were made the following spring and by summer my snail mail address had changed to Florida!

On Christmas Day 2017 (in Florida), the weather was mild enough to wear shirt sleeves and to walk in sunshine with two Sand Hill cranes following me on the sidewalk!! 

Marcus Stanley, Facebook

Although I had been to Florida many times prior to that (and even lived in Orlando for a short time in the mid-90s), we had no intention to live in the heat and humidity of Florida's climate again. But as they say, "Never say never." 

Truly, the Lord has plans for our lives that we never imagine. If not immediately, then eventually, it all comes together for good. I am so thankful.

trimming a palm tree

While some of you have donned your coats and hats, revving up your snowblowers, we are busy in other ways, wearing our shorts and athletic shoes. My Gary would probably not say he "loves" yard work, yet he likes to get outside often to trim up the bushes, mow and edge the lawn, and this week, to trim the unsightly branches from our palm trees. 

broken down and ready for
yard waste pick-up

Yard work is not a favorite with me, but I enjoy being outside with my husband so I try to find ways to be helpful. These huge palm branches remind me of the Charleton Heston movie, The Ten Commandments, when the palace slaves would fan the pharaoh with similar leaves. 

You can see some of our outside Christmas decor in the photo above, so I'll ramble over to that topic.

Poinsettia from Lowe's

This pot rests beside the garage door and the side walk up to the front door. Near that are two of our yard birds wearing their seasonal finery. 

Just an FYI for your northerners, the inclusion of long-legged birds in Florida landscapes is a popular decorating style, along with turtles, and gators.

Larry the turtle

We've got a new tree in the garage window that faces out toward the street. It's not all that impressive in daylight hours, but at night.....

.....it completes our outdoor light display. At our age, climbing ladders to hang strings of lights is ill-advised.

The lights cycle from white to different arrangements of color. 

Heading up to the front door is the Dickens-style street lantern. It lights up at night (not real bright) but still gives a nostalgic, traditional look to the scene. I like it a lot. Here's what it looks like at night:

Hurricane season is over for 2025. How thankful we are that none of that touched Florida this year. 

just in case

But on the porch we are prepared for adverse weather with our sled..... 😆⛄️

from Bill and Ida

After the ghastly Halloween displays in October, it is so refreshing to see the decorations that remind us of the original reason for the celebration of Christmas. 

Do not be afraid, for behold,

I bring you good tidings of great joy

which shall be to all people.

For there is born to you this day

in the city of David, 

a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:10-11

Until next time, grace and peace.

Signs of the Season

  

Thanksgiving was just a few days ago and blink! Just like that, we are into the Christmas season! 

This book (see above) by author and speaker, Susie Larson, is my morning quiet time devotional book starting December 1 - 24th. Ms. Larson is an excellent 'wordsmith' in that she phrases things so artfully, so appropriately, and concisely. She fascinates me. I'm inspired to improve my writing after reading her daily email devotions.

screen shot of a recent devotional 

If you are interested in subscribing to her daily devotions, click on this link for more information (it's free).

So, with that introduction, I am preparing my heart for this Christmas season and also unpacking our decorations for the house. Instead of my usual habit of devoting one blog post to a "house tour" with our decorations, this year I think I'll just include snapshots as they happen, along with whatever else is worth writing about. I may be blogging more often but with shorter posts (or not!). 🤭

downtown Ocala, Florida

This is from "Light Up Ocala," when my town lit up the downtown square. This is an annual event, which we did not attend since we prefer to be safely tucked into our house with the shades drawn after sunset. This photo was taken by one of the Orlando TV stations. 

The white Christmas tree that we have been positioning in a garage window that faces our street has yellowed a lot. Last year Gary thought about replacing it, but I talked him out of it. This year it was more evident to me that the tree had seen better days. (note the bottom branches) I spent much of the morning removing all of the ornaments (red balls, white balls, and plastic crystal icicles).

A pair of those icicles have been multi-purposed into winter earrings for me! (just kidding -- they are too long!) The balls have been used in other decor.

my Christmas wardrobe

While I'm on the topic of decorating myself for the holidays, my seasonal shirts and tops have been unpacked. Some of these were bought in Colorado, which means they are 10-15 years old! But when they are worn only one month of the year (and here in Florida, worn only if the temperature is cold enough!), clothes can last a long time!

Excuse the glare on my son's photo;
I couldn't get it to erase without giving him a black eye! LOL!

Speaking of clothes, my readers may remember last Christmas when the miniature Santa hat found Michelangelo (or did we decide this is the Old Testament David??). 

our living room Christmas tree

Returning to the topic of Christmas trees. I put some of the white balls from the discarded white tree onto the green tree. I bought this tree in 2021, after I had decided I was done with a 6-foot tree. I love being able to store this tree with a large trash bag placed over it, ornaments still on the branches. But the white balls made it "pop!" and I like the look. 

The majority of the red satin-thread balls from the white tree are now in a pail beside the front door. 

from Hobby Lobby

When I shopped at Hobby Lobby recently, I found this treasure which became an impulse buy. It's Gary and me! When I got home and showed him my purchases, one of the first things he said was this was surely "blog fodder." Of course! The red-and-white striped rug they (we) are dancing on is a woven placemat. I bought just the one because it looked like a rug but it's too busy of a design for our dinner plates.

Since I've waltzed us into the subject of romance, here is our mistletoe that we hung from the ceiling fan in the living room. ❤️❤️

My nativity scene is on the coffee table this year. The wise men are coming in from Daytona Beach the East, with their camels resting nearby. A shepherd with his sheep, goat, and (an oversized) chicken are on the other side, having walking over from the Gulf the West.

Joseph's donkey is out of sight in this snapshot but hovers near Mary, Joseph, and an angel who are all watching the baby Jesus. Itty bitty battery-powered lights are intertwined throughout, giving the scene a mystical look. I am thinking a couple of miniature palm trees might be a nice addition or a very small artificial succulent in a small pot.

With the 5-year anniversary of Tom's entrance into Heaven having come and gone, I am feeling a sense of release from sorrow. Oh, to be sure, I will always miss him and be so very grateful for the influences he had on my life for over 50 years, but reaching this 5-year anniversary is a milestone. 

photo edited for privacy reasons

This Christmas season is more joyful for me. Shedding the 'sackcloth', so to speak, is freeing. Letting go of negatives that have hounded me and giving myself permission to embrace the true significance of Jesus' as my Savior and Redeemer -- all of that is wonderful.

To You, O LORD, I called;

to the LORD I cried for mercy...

You turned my wailing into dancing; 

You removed my sackcloth and

clothed me with joy,

that my heart may sing to You

and not be silent.

O LORD my God,

I will give You thanks forever.

Psalm 30:8 and 11-12

Until next time, grace and peace.

P.S. I'm trying out a new font, something more casual. It's called "Architects Daughter."