Kabra's Korner: December - Week 04 Special Edition

Well, here it is Christmas Eve!!! This was always a magical night when I was a child. Growing up on a dairy farm, it seemed like we always had a baby calf born on Christmas Eve. My whole family would sit around and wait for a new arrival. . .one Christmas Eve we actually had a set of twins born and they both survived. With dairy cows back in the day, that was truly a miracle. Then, there was always the anticipation of Santa's arrival. I think some of this was manufactured by my parents but when we had snow, there were always footprints leading from the barn to the house but NOT vise versa!!! Looking back I think my Dad walked backwards from the house to the barn and then retraced his steps so it looked like Santa traveled from the barn to the house and then vanished into thin air!!! Back then, my most memorable Christmas was the year I was so sick. . .I actually got to sleep in my parent's bed that Christmas Eve so Mom could keep and eye on me. When I woke up Christmas morning, Dad was gently waking me up and I could feel a nudge. I opened my eyes and saw a tiny pony colt standing by my bed!!! My first thought. . .I had died and there were horses in heaven!!! But no, Dad had gotten the pony from one of his friends who raised ponies. Smoky's mother had died giving birth and the colt was so weak that Dad's friend didn't think he would make it. . .so Dad told him he would take him. Dad was really good at taking care of animals and that pony flurished!!! That was my Christmas present that year. . .and yes, the pony was allowed in the house for a few minutes. . .truly magical!!! Now, fast forward a decade or two for another Christmas miracle!!! That Christmas I was pregnant with our first child. . .my due date was mid-January. And, keep in mind, my husband is the oldest in a large family. That Christmas I invited both sides of our family up for Christmas. And on the menu was of course turkey. Christmas morning, I got up and didn't want to wake my husband up so I waddled into the kitchen to fix that 26-pound turkey!!! Of course, the bird was on the lowest shelf of the refrigerator so I had a bit of a stuggle getting that thing out of the oven. Dinner went off without a hitch and since I had gotten up so early to fix the turkey, I went to bed early. However, shortly after midnight I woke up and didn't feel very good. . .kind of kept me awake all night, but I didn't want to wake up my husband, after all I had probably just eaten too much turkey. There was a regular pattern to the waves of pain and my husband eventually called his Mom who was an RN to ask what to do. She said we probably needed to get to the hospital - the doctor was out of the office that day. On the way out the door, the Phil Donohue show came on and it looked interesting so we watched it. Then we left for the hospital. . .I told my husband he should get something to eat since we might be at the hospital a while, so we drove through the McDonalds drive-thru. We got to the hospital and he dropped me off at the door. . .the nurses completely bypassed the ER and took me immediately to Labor and Delivery. I got settled into the bed, the nurse came in and the next thing I knew everything got frantic and I was quickly wheeled to the delivery room. Our daughter was born 31 minutes after arriving at the hospital!!! Good thing there wasn't a long line at McDonalds!!! Anyway, there are lots of Christmas Eve memories. . .but my purpose today is to share a couple of layouts with you so here goes. . .

Poinsettia