So our Epiphany was amazing!!
Day started with me walking past a storage shed we have behind our house and thinking, "I really would like to find a particular nativity set to put out today!" I knew it was put in that shed when we moved here, but a family member had lived in this house before us. When we moved in, they deserted most of their things. So I spent the first two weeks moving all of their things out before we could move their things in. I didn't want to just throw them out. It was their stuff. So I boxed it and put it in that storage shed... where it remains... unclaimed.... 6.5 years later. LOL But it means that a few boxes of ours are behind those items.
Yesterday morning was cool so I got to work, made my way back through all the boxes and storage bins to our items, got my hands on the box with the nativity items and see a white box beneath it. I didn't recognize the box. I took it down, opened it - and lo and behold were all of my most cherished Christmas decorations. I've been upset about it every Christmas since we moved here because I never found them. I thought they had been stolen as we had so many people helping us move, who brought people with them I didn't know. I label everything and had a packing list so I knew where everything was... except these items who were boxed by someone else at our old house, brought over here, and placed high on a shelf in the storage shed under the nativity box.
I sat outside on the back porch crying as I unwrapped every one of them, checking them for damage and then gently repacking them since most of them would be getting put up in a few days. I did keep out a few and put them up along with the nativity. The box went into the closet in my office where I keep the rest of the holiday decorations. I was so excited! I couldn't believe it!! The Christmas album and then this too??
Then I got an email from Icing Smiles. Icing Smiles is a volunteer baking organization that does dream birthday cakes for children with terminal illnesses or in long term health care whose families can't afford those types of ornate cakes. They also do them for siblings of those children. Last year, I was taking a class from a Food Network baker and asking a myriad of questions about the products being used. (I'm one of those annoying people who uses whole, organic, fair-trade, yadda-yadda and big on not feeding people products that cause health issues - i.e. white sugar, white flour, shortening, vegetable oils, etc.) She finally asked the director who I was and he told her I was a regular class taker and always asked things like that. She went and looked up my info and went through my portfolio. She herself is a volunteer baker for Icing Smiles (which before then I'd never heard of). She recommended me to them as a specialty baker who can do decorative cakes for children with dietary restrictions.
I put in my application and became one of their volunteer bakers. That was... October I think. I hadn't heard much from them since. Yesterday - I got an email and had not one, but TWO cakes assigned to me for children in our area. I am so over-the-moon honored to be able to do this! It feels like I'm having Christmas all over again!
THEN - yeah it was a 3-fer day. My son comes home and informs me that the seasonal job he had wanted as Parks ranger assistant at Yellowstone National Park was just offered to him. It's May through October. It's full time, 4 days per week, then 3 days off. The 3 days off they have full access to the entire park and all the facilities free of charge. So it's all the hiking, conservation, fly fishing, horseback riding, skiiing, snowboarding and camping he can stand. They have on-site apartments and he's already had one reserved for him and meals are provided in the park's dining room. So all living expenses are covered, full time salary and spending the entire summer season in Yellowstone National Park. Pretty good way to spend your 20th birthday before you leave for your enlistment. The job he has now is with Florida State Wildlife and Game Commission and they're giving him a leave of absence so he won't lose his position there either or his benefits.
It was a phenomenal day!! AND - my Epiphany gift from my son was a gift bag filled with an assortment of my favorite whole bean coffees. Christmas he gave me two giant boxes of custom loose teas from a local tea shop. I'm in Heaven. LOL Note my ID icon - yeah - that's my facial expression for real right now.
