Coming on Christmas

It's almost time. The anticipation is hanging in the air, the snow has piled up, the full moon is suspended like a  bright ornament over the icy bay and there are only nine days left until our living room fills with laughter and crumpled paper as our family basks in the afterglow of  Christmas  morning.

What a season it's shaping up to  be with our 5th Christmas concert of the season coming up Wednesday.  Martina is the Master of Ceremonies in this one and it's sure to be a delight like the wonderful show Sophia was in last week.

Life is good.  I went into 2013 with a feeling of being on the verge of something amazing and this year has been the best since 2005 when my last baby was born.

Every aspect is perfect.  Life in all its messy and disorganized glory seems to have found a way to send me the best it has to offer and while my simple life of a tapping the keys on a computer keyboard may not seem all that valuable,  creating an expansive social media campaign that led the Change Islands Newfoundland Pony Sanctuary to get into the finals of the Aviva Community Fund Competition and subsequently winning $5000 for the cause feels good.  The big prize will be announced on January 28 and I have done my best with the proposal.

I've never been so amazed to see a team come together with such conviction towards a common cause with votes for the endeavor on Change islands exceeding 21,000 nearly the same number of votes a cause is St. John's received.  Considering the population of our island is 200 compared to the 200,000 residents of St. John's I think our success was truly remarkable.  I made friends I'll keep forever and proven my self to have skills I didn't even realise I could utilise to such a degree.  I am so pleased with the results and love watching everybody dive in and use their talents to support the cause, a cause I feel passionate about and feel will be a success no matter who wins the Aviva contest. We are national contenders, our little town is. I've always known we were special, now I can't find anyone who disagrees.

The best part of this entire year has been the people I've met. I've always gotten my greatest pleasure from conversation with people who have something to teach me.  I've made friends who are well known by a lot of people and those who live a life that is quiet and modest and both types of people delight me and make my life richer.  I've befriended artists and business people, entertained the idea of entering politics and come really close to finishing my latest novel and will do so this winter with two more firm projects to follow.

I'm so grateful and commit to a complaint-free season.  I delight in the work and the bustle and the hectic days ahead with the dreaded shopping and all the planning and fussing because I know that a quiet time follows where I get to be fully creative and work on that which I love the most, my writing.

And I so look forward to hearing from friends over the holidays and becoming reconnected with those I've missed this year.  I'm sure I'll be back at least once more before the big day but just in case, Merry festive joyous Christmas and a delightful and successful new year!