A very Merry Christmas

We are so very blessed to be safe after what could have been an absolute tragedy for us yesterday. We spent the day with Tyler's dear parents, his brother Travis and my dad came down from Toronto to share in the joy of Christmas and Penny's delicious cooking. Around 9pm we decided to head back to the church house to relax, maybe watch a movie and snuggle with the bun. I was absolutely horrified when we walked into the house full of thick dark smoke.  The fireplace had some hot coals escape under the unit and they were slowly burning the floor boards all day long. If we had been any later, it would most certainly have burned our home to the ground. Dad and Tyler moved quickly, Tyler crawled under the church calling up to dad where to pour the buckets to extinguish the burning wood below. I took our wee bunny to the car and hoped he wasn't at all hurt by breathing in that much smoke. After about an hour the church had cleared of a lot of the smoke and everything was under control. The scary thing is imagining what would have happened if we stayed for another drink, originally we were contemplating sleeping over at Penny and Bill's. We are just so so lucky.
I'm currently writing this from the couch in my pj's, I smell like a camp fire, it's going to take a few weeks for the smell to clear but everyone is safe. Coincidentally, 3 days ago, the original owner of the church contacted me to say he had pictures of the church and a video of it on fire, back in May 1990 it burned down to the brick! Kind of strange yes? We are just so thankful we caught it before it was too late. We could have lost so much.  
I feel especially thankful today for so many things in my life. My dear family and friends, my wee shop. Coriander Girl is going strong and during this week off I've got so much dreaming to do! So, I'm going to get to that and I'll see you back here early January. It's just so important to give priority to the things that matter, finding the time for the people we love, taking the time to do the things we love to do.
Here's to that!

Alison xoxo