​I was talking with my friend Celeste Miller this morning (via e mail) and she was talking about having to spend the last two nights in a bed at a nursing home because of the weather where she lives.  Celeste is a surgeon at a hospital in Missouri and the roads were so bad, she ended up staying close by the hospital.  The nursing home was her best bet.

She was telling me how good it was to be back in her own bed and taking a shower in her own bathroom.  

It reminded me of an incident one night when we came home from being "on the road".  We lived in a wonderful house on Crestwood Dr. here in Fountain City.  We lived there for 16 years.  I still miss it.  That particular night, when we pulled into our driveway, I told Tommy it felt like we were getting a giant hug.  We had trees that hung over our driveway and it felt just like that to me...the trees were reaching down to hug us and welcome us home.

When we went inside, it felt like the house was hugging us.  When we got our shower and climbed into bed...once again....a hug.

Tommy says quite often, that one of the most beautiful words in the English language is HOME.  He says it feels good in your mouth.  I agree.

Sometimes, though, home can be in a place you wouldn't normally think of home.  I remember being in the desert in Mexico once, and coming up the dusty road at night to climb into my "home"....a tent lined up with a lot of other tents.  They all looked the same so I always hung a lantern in mine so I would know when I got "home".  

I remember the feeling when I went into that tent at night and crawled into my sleeping bag.  It felt like home and I felt, once again, that giant hug.  (I was also praying that there wasn't a creepy crawly in the bottom of my sleeping bag!)

We often stay at a place that is called "The Gathering Place" in Columbus, Indiana.  Our friend Joyce Sword owns it and is gracious enough to let us stay there when we are in the area (and we are in the area a lot!)  When we walk  in...once again...we get a giant hug.  When we curl up in front of her fireplace on couches that she bought just for us to sleep on...a hug!

Where do YOU feel like you are getting a giant hug?  It doesn't always have to be at the actual dwelling you call home.  Sometimes it can be in a place you wouldn't expect.  When it happens though, it is a feeling you carry with you and one that you look forward to happening again.  Here's hoping you get a giant hug today!

​When my boys were growing up, we made a lot of cut out cookies to decorate,  usually at Christmas and Valentine's Day.  Sometimes we did it other times as well, but those were the main two occasions.

Many times we invited all the neighborhood kids in for a decorating party.  We would sit around our large kitchen table, with cookies and icing spread all over the top,  and have a wonderful time, as I remember it.  

Recently we ran into one of those neighborhood "kids" at a church where Tommy and John boy had a meeting.  He is a grown man now, but he remembered those decorating parties!  He said the only thing he couldn't figure out, though, was why I made everyone wash their hands before beginning. He said he figured he was just going to get icing on them anyway so why should he wash beforehand!  HA!  Just like a kid.

During the boys growing up years, we also made cookies to take to the inmates at the jail down the road from our house.  Every week I would make 300 cookies, bag them up and deliver them to the jail. Back then we were allowed to hand deliver them to the men and the boys went along with us!  The men loved getting homemade cookies every week from "the cookie lady".

Jason always took cut out cookies to his second grade teacher when we made them.  She was his favorite teacher growing up...Valerie Neth.  She told me once that she wanted to be a Mom who made cookies with her children, so when Miss Neth got married, we gave her...you guessed it...a cookie cutter!

We have a youth group who meet in our house each week.  They are all boys...I tend to always have boys around me for some reason!  This week, we are going to sit around the table and decorate cut out cookies.  At first, when Tommy mentioned it, I said no.  I have had a busy season this Christmas, and I just didn't want to add something else.  

I woke up in the night last night and thought..."you should never get too busy to make cookies with the children in your life."  So, this Thursday night when our boys come over, we will sit around the dining room table and decorate Christmas cookies.  I hope they will always remember it...and yes...I WILL make them wash their hands first!