Giving Thanks…

“The Grinch hadn’t stopped Christmas from coming; it came!”         –  Dr. Seuss

Just prior to Thanksgiving we had a slab leak that resulted in water damage to the wood floor in our family room and kitchen.  For those that have had this issue; you know the sequence of having holes in the walls of your home and the re-piping.  The process is lengthy, dusty and noisy.  With the fans, hammering and sawing; I felt like the Grinch saying “All the noise, noise, NOISE!”

While it has been our tradition to decorate for Christmas during Thanksgiving weekend we were fortunate to clear a space on one end of a table to have our meal and afterwards, I placed a small tree there.  My husband did get our trees lit in the front yard (see December 30, 2011 blog) and that helps as we wait for the new floor, patching and painting.

Last week, my husband was returning home with the second load of tiles for the floor that needed repaired and someone ran into him on the rain slicked roads.  I get the phone call “Don’t get upset, I’m OK but I’ve just been in an accident and the car is totaled”.  It was hard to register that he was OK and the car was now ready to be junked; this was a Toyota Sequoia, not a little car.  I was there to see for myself in less than five minutes, because of course it was just a few miles from the house.  I thanked God that my husband and the young man that had ran into him were indeed safe.  Many times accidents don’t turn out that way and nurses are especially aware of this.

Upsetting as these things are, they are temporary.  Damage to a home and a car can be fixed.  The accident put all the upset and turmoil in a new light from many perspectives.  What’s really important isn’t the decorations, tinsel and presents.  Just as Dr. Seuss said, Christmas is about something more.

So, from my topsy turvey home this year to yours, Merry Christmas and wishes for a Happy New Year!