From Thanksgiving through the New Year, my heart sings with happiness. Hubby and I are empty nesters, but that doesn’t dampen my spirit and love for these precious family holidays. Memories abound of the years our children were still at home, the special joy at seeing their faces light up like the Christmas tree we’d decorate together. So many fun and heartwarming events happened in the house which is now vacant of the pitter patter of tiny feet…well, with the exception of the cats.

Our animals made many of our memories that we laugh about when we get together for our annual Christmas get together. For instance, our cat named Caesar once tackled our thawing pork roast while we were at the Candlelight Service at church one year. We came home to find him kicking and biting at the hunk of meat, rolling around on the floor having a good old time! And then there was our dog, Lady, who sniffed out the bag of candy corn sent to the kids by their grandmother. After demolishing the candy, the dog then ripped open several other packages to see if she could find anything else good to eat. Luckily I did get up early enough to rewrap the packages before the girls awakened. I also remember a cat named Linus who climbed our undecorated Christmas tree while we were out. He spread out on the branch as if he belonged there. Now we have three cats named Charlotte, Wilbur, and Templeton. We are constantly trying to keep them from destroying the artificial tree. How they manage to climb into the skinny tree without claws continues to amaze me. And leap! Wilbur once leaped straight up and snatched a beautiful bird perched on one of the top branches. One year I put silk and velvet poinsettias in the tree…those were doomed from the start. And I finally tossed the red cardinals I loved so much. They looked so beautiful on the green branches, and evidently very enticing to our cats. Currently our tree looks really nice. Our family get together is on December 17. I can only hope that it looks half as nice by that date! We’ll gather with the family to share food, laughter, and hugs.

On Christmas Eve, we’ll all go to Candlelight Worship service and hubby and I will come home to sit by the lit tree and reminisce. This year we are so blessed to have Christmas fall on Sunday when we can go to our church and celebrate Jesus’ birthday. Yes, we are empty nesters, but we have a home filled loving memories and new ones yet to be made.

Carol Ann Erhardt is an inspirational romance writer. TRAPPED is the title of her newest release and is the first novel in the Havens Creek series. The novel explores the issues around forgiveness  and trust. Learn more about Carol Ann and her available books by visiting her website at http://www.CarolAnnErhardt.com