Merry Christmas

This is a particularly special Christmas for my family. We will be spending our day together in a new home.

After the tornado, my mom's living room was completely destroyed.

It wasn't flattened like many of the apartments in her complex, but she lost all of her furniture and we spent hours going through the debris, collecting things that were special to her.

In the photo above, you can see a  little antique Christmas tree buried with cotton candy insulation and ceiling planks.  It belonged to my great-grandparents. My mom keeps it up all year. When I first climbed into her front door into the war-zone of her living room, I figured the little tree was a gonner....but somehow...it made it. We even saved most of the little colored light bulbs, scattered in the soggy wet carpeting of the living room, mixed with the broken glass of the screen door and splinters of wood.

This Christmas, a friend at school donated a small tree, and another donated some ornaments and now both trees have a special place in mom's living room. Side by side, a few small presents underneath.

The gift I am most excited to give this year is a painting. It used to hang above my mom's couch. (The brand new couch she just got in April, that was soaked and ruined). I painted it high school and even though it probably wouldn't be worthy of a major gallery...it was a special part of my mom's home. After the storm, we found this painting in the back bedroom. It had traveled down the the hall and wrapped around a bedpost. It was dirty and badly warped.

I had the canvas cleaned, re-stretched and re-framed. The only evidence of its damage is a small gash, a battle scar in the middle.

I am really excited to give it to my mom....I hope it makes her new house feel more like her home.

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas everyone!!