When we moved into our temporary home in 2021, it took me a while to wrestle the new space into usefulness. We’d come from a very large home, with an expansive kitchen that included a walk-in pantry, multiple drawers to hold all my kitchen goods, and even a couple of spare floor to ceiling cupboards for overflow. Our temporary home has exactly 6 drawers, 7 cupboards, and one small pantry that’s located around the corner from the kitchen. Now, this…
There’s this crazy family story that runs through our house nearly every single December. It’s not the traditional story of presents, tinsel, and snow. It’s one of those true stories that somehow becomes family legend as more years go by. You see, seven years ago we did this crazy wild thing called buying a house. We’d been bumping from rental to rental at an alarming rate, and that particular year found us, once again, caring for Nana. Now, I confess,…
The lights twinkle alluringly on the tree, reflected in the shiny bauble ornaments. The lull of age old carols play in the background, and there, beneath the tree are a few small parcels wrapped in worn brown paper, red and white ribbon holding piles of them together. They sit forefront under the tree, the small bulbs of colorful light at the base of the tree shining directly on them. There are other gifts there too, hidden beneath the small packages…
Many stories start with the age old phrase, “once upon a time..” And I suppose I could start this story that way, but I’m going to tell you right from the get-go that this is a true story that happened many years ago to my family. We still talk about it from time to time, we’ve dubbed a family legend that is hard to believe. An epic tale. A devil of a tale, you might say, but now I’m getting…