After writing my last entry about how much I love Autumn, and how it's my favorite season of the year, the *October Surprise Storm* as it's been called here in Amherst, NY hit, and hit HARD on October 12th-13th, obliterating my beautiful, cozy Autumn, and leaving us in a bundle of downed limbs, branches, electric and wires of every kind, and the biggest damage to clean up ever seen in this area!

     Over 400,000 homes were left without power, some for up to 10 days! The death toll was about 13 the last I  heard, thankfully not higher, but still sad for our community nonetheless.  

      Amherst, where we live was the hardest hit area, which was seen by the literally 8 foot average piles of debris piled in front of home after home after home, some of which are still there, waiting to be picked up and hauled away, including our house!

       Our beautiful tree in our backyard is not the same, with about a third of it falling on the roofs and to the ground. It's sad to look around our area, and see the trees have lost the beauty of their form. I'm sure there's a future blog entry all about that to come in the near future.

        But Sarah and I decided to make lemonade out of lemons after the storm!   Because our favorite season was taken away, we're not going to let them get us down! We're looking to our favorite HOLIDAY instead!  So in our home, the CHRISTMAS SEASON has officially already begun!!!! We've already watched three of our favorite Christmas movies, have started listening to Christmas music, and have started our Christmas shopping! We're going ALL OUT for Christmas this year.....more decorating.....more baking and cooking.......more Christmas music......more Christmas shows and movies.....and more Christmas cheer all around!!!!   We are in the Christmas spirit here (well, the girls are, the boys are always bah humbugs).  We're full of the JOY of the Lord, and full in preparation for His Special Day.....His Glorious Birth!!!!    Praise God and Pass the Christmas Cookies!!!!!