MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

It's been nearly a year (a year!?!) since my last blog post, but I do not want to let this beautiful season go by without wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!

May the Good News of our Lord's birth fill you all with hope and peace, and may God pour forth his blessings upon us all in the new year.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy 40th birthday, that is.

And to all you 39-year-olds who are in the shoes I wore yesterday and nearly every day since my birthday last year, the "I can hardly bear that I have to be 40 on my next birthday" shoes, well,

I'm happy to say that being 40 is absolutely lovely.

In fact, this may have been my best birthday ever. My day was filled with my family, my friends, delicious birthday treats, delightful presents, and the creation of happy, happy memories .

What blessings! What a joyful day!

And what a blessing to be 40, to be old enough to take last year's shoes off and fling them far behind me, to get to see that by turning 40 I have all the happiness I had before plus all of today's happiness too. A longer life with more happiness than before, that's what I have today. It's better. And because I just went through it I don't merely think so, I know so.

What a surprising and wonderful thing to learn! Now that I'm forty I really am old enough to know better.