A New Year

Hi All, and Happy 2026! I hope all is well! It has definitely been a bit since I posted, and I am looking forward to sharing again!

Let’s see – we left off at the gardens – townhome and historic cemetery – having wrapped up for 2025, and moving toward their winter sleep, as well as all the daylily seeds having been logged and stored until 2026 stratification. I was working on deciding if I was going to continue hybridizing daylilies in 2026, and in 2026 I was planning to head more towards daylilies that would have been around in early American gardens.

Throughout the rest of the fall, I enjoyed a very nice, long season with family and friends, old and new. Then, just about the time the snow started to fly, the holidays arrived. This holiday season I picked up an old hobby again and resolved a long-time research effort.

The first – picking up an old hobby again – was scrapbooking. Over the holidays I decided to start going through decades of holiday greeting cards I had saved. This was already a work-in-progress, but barely. I had previously sorted some cards by person/family into plastic sleeves in a large 3 ring binder. There was, however, also a box and a basket of cards that were part of my envisioned work. I got about sorting them, and from there, after a short detour where I considered and decided against configuring the binder by years, I settled on an approach. I realized I didn’t want an archive; I wanted the finished product to be more of a blessing. The project took on momentum. I needed it because, as you can probably imagine, yes, that approach involved purging some of the greetings. That is always a moment for pause. But from then on, the project itself became a blessing. I finished it between Christmas and New Years. And it has also already blessed others. Truly. Like my sweet husband asked me to bring it to our family Christmas celebration.

The second – resolving a long-time research effort – may be controversial. Here goes:

Every year as we approach the holidays I kind of cringe. Not only does the commercialism make me want to go on a no buy season, but I had also heard over 30 years ago, from my pastor, a Christian pastor, that Jesus was not born on December 24th, or 25th. My mind started. Why would we say He was? Give gifts that proport to represent that “Jesus is the Reason for the Season”? Over the years I have done boatloads of research and gone through various iterations of properly celebrating Christmas. You know, twisting and turning with stuff like “If 3 presents were enough for Jesus, then 3 presents each are enough for us”. I have been mindful to keep things properly focused. I spend a lot of time in reflection and prayer and gratitude. I spend time in fellowship. And of course we have family time. But – I like truth, so I kept searching. Because JESUS WAS BORN, and I do want to celebrate that.

This year I came to a peaceful decision that celebrating Jesus’s birth on Dec 24th/25th, although most likely not historically accurate, was reasonable, as it is quite likely that is around the time He was conceived. Not born like we know born, but when He became human. And that is why He came. For us. Humans. The rest of the weight of that truth I cannot just impart. It is a matter between God and each person to accept, or not. And I am not writing a research paper, I am sharing an experience, so I will not site references. Just like consuming any information, the best approach is to search it out yourself. I can, however, share. I would recommend keyword searching the statements below.

Jesus was conceived. Jesus was born. Jesus lived. Jesus was crucified for us. Jesus paid the price for our sins, so we do not have eternal separation from God. Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus ascended into heaven. Jesus waits for us to join Him at the appointed time.

So, after years of wrestling with the historical knowledge that Jesus most likely was not born on December 24th, this year I celebrated Jesus’s conception on Dec 24th/25th. And will in the future.

So those were two BIG highlights, for December.

On New Years Eve our family and friends prayed and prayed and prayed as a family member was given an incredibly precious gift from someone very far away. That gift is a crucial part of their ongoing physical healing journey, and we continue to pray and pray and pray. Prayers of thanks, and prayers for healing. God is good. God’s timing is perfect. God’s plan is not always our plan.

And now we are at January 7th. It is time to get back on the laptop and share some beauty.

The first pic is my finished, stuffed to the gills Christmas card binder. Next to a nostalgic magazine. The binder is FULL. Lots of love in there 🙂 And yes, I have some even older Christmas cards still in storage. The approach on those is TBD.

For 2026, besides trying to decide if I will continue to hybridize daylilies (or just see what the bees, and birds, and other insects and the wind accomplish), I have decided that if we as a culture can do “Christmas in July” (don’t get me started) I can do June in January. So, this is a pic from our slice of getaway in the land of coyotes and wolves and bears oh my 🙂 on June 7, 2025. Enjoy!

Be Blessed!