Merry Christmas from The Yankee!

I can't believe that we are winding down the clock on this Christmas season.... and yet, we are.

I have no complaints. Not one. I've had some time to sing, play and create with little kids and that makes the holiday so much more special to me....

I've baked.

I've made Connealy Crunch (recipe here)

I've made sugared nuts and spicy salty sweet nuts....

I am bell ringing at Marketplace Mall on Saturday with a whole bunch of the family... And Texas Cowboy Luke is in town until Christmas, so that's a wonderful thing!

I've got a nice day planned with most of our kids on Sunday.... and then Dave's family on Monday... and then Beth's family on Christmas, so those three days are full of laughter and joy, perfect to celebrate the birth of a newborn king.

When I look back on how that one birth... and that ensuing life... changed so much, I can see the miracle involved. Not just the miracles Christ performed, but the miracles of his very life. His existence.

We are blessed to be here. Blessed to be Americans. Blessed to love others as ourselves and to go out of our way to be kind and good and welcoming. Blessed to live as Christ would want us to live.

So on these final days of the season, I focus on my list of people in need of prayer, including each of you. I pray that you'll have a wonderful holy day and a blessed time with those you love. And if your Christmas isn't Hallmark idyllic, fear not....

For I bring you tidings of great joy! For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a savior which is Christ the Lord....

No matter how our Christmas celebration goes.... or doesn't go.... knowing what God was willing to do for us, what his son was willing to do for us, as lowly as we are...

Well, that makes it the best Christmas ever.

Merry Christmas from all of us at YankeeBelle Cafe and from the Blodgett/Logan Herne house in Western New York!

Ruthy