Tuesday, 12/26/17, 9:30pm

I am home. At 8 o’clock I was still sitting at our dining room table working my way through Day 33 of Annie F. Downs’s devotional 100 Days to Brave, listening to my Red Sea Road, Age to Age, “Even If” (by MercyMe) and “Oh My Soul” (by Casting Crowns) playlist on my iPod.

This matters because just last week I was finishing off three weeks of overnights at my favorite care home.

And every night since then we’ve been crazy busy.

Wednesday Night after Bible Study Ant and I went Christmas shopping. Thursday Night we were home, but we had my cousin and his family over for dinner. (He’s been a missionary in the Ukraine for SEVEN YEARS already and we got to meet his wife and almost 1-year old daughter for the first time). Friday Night was Magic Night–normal introvert-social time, but we were still home late. Saturday, we drove up to Grass Valley late-morning and spent a couple hours with my father-in-law, then to Auburn for lunch and a pit stop at Cosmic Comics, home for 20 minutes, then to Sacramento for my aunt’s Christmas party. Then we came home and went our separate ways to finish Christmas Shopping.

(I don’t recommend still shopping on Christmas Eve Eve. It’s stressful ad the stores are cleaned out. Do yourself a favor and do all your shopping in November–October even!–so that the month of December is fun and beautiful and lovely.)

Sunday. Christmas Eve. We were at church in the morning (in our pajamas of course) and then home to host my husband’s immediate family for dinner and games and presents.

Monday. Christmas Day. We spent the morning at the care home for a little bit and then went home to open our presents that we bought for each other. Then at 2pm, we headed up the hill and across the canyon to Garden Valley for #voylerwoodchristmas2017. And it was grand as always.

But tonight I’m home 🙂

It’s 9:40 now.

I’m still in the clothes I wore to work. I haven’t made my lunch; though, I do know what I’m taking. I’ll pick out my clothes soon for tomorrow. And while I enjoyed the evenings with Edna, watching whatever she happened to have on the television, tonight I’m at my writing desk, with the our Christmas tree and lights all lit up, our cats, Ant’s new blue Fluffy blanket on the couch, and some very victory-esque music coming from Ant’s computer, and Anthony himself behind me at his desk playing a video game.

This is the life people. I love it.