Dear Reader:

Dear Reader:

Yesterday was the Summerville Chapter of the MS Society’s Annual Christmas Luncheon/Party. It never disappoints. Gwen outdoes herself decorating each table for this amazing event…turning the room into a warm all-encompassing aura of thankfulness and graciousness.

I was simply so happy just to be there after missing the luncheon last year when my foot was stuck up in space with an air-pressurized boot and tubes going out everywhere…(like I told the audience yesterday) leaving me looking like an “octopus in training.”

When Andrea Andrews called again this past November…she said the theme this year was HOPE and I thought how appropriate the theme was and is for everyone in that room.

Andrea expressed it best when she told the gathering that my type of breast cancer fell into the same category as all of their personal fights against MS…our one commonality? We are all living on “borrowed time” with hope as the compass that leads us. (We are all living with health issues that are treatable but not curable to date.)

Before starting my story (the one I will be doing for the Christmas Eve Story that I gave you a hint about a couple of days ago) I made the observation that the date, December 13, marked the start of the ’12 Days of Christmas’...for each day we could all name a different hope we were feeling. Hope is very diversified, as well as, personalized for each individual.

Even though we all share the commonality of ‘living on borrowed time’…the truth is…from the second we take our first breath until the moment we take our last…all of us live on “borrowed time.” We each only have a certain amount of time on this earth…so we need to seize the moment and enjoy it to the fullest…for as long as we can.

Yesterday…”the weather outside was frightful”... (torrential rains) but inside…”so delightful” with good food, music, and fellowship.

Elizabeth Peterson, President of the Summerville Chapter of the MS Society, who along with Andrea Andrews, started this local chapter…said it had been 17 years since its creation and then Elizabeth looked up the number of times I had told a story at the luncheon and it was eight.

What an honor it has been to be a small part of this amazing organization!  (*It was Mike and Honey Burrell who introduced me to this special organizaation that they gave gifts of Honey’s pottery to for years!) Hats off to them and  Elizabeth and Andrea for starting the chapter!

Is there anything more beautiful than the sounds of a harp at Christmas? The event ends with door prizes ( I was lucky to win the block of HOPE) ….These children helped pull names randomly…the youngest child’s name being, what else, Hope!

So until tomorrow… Hope began for all of us in the manger…because where ‘there is faith…there is hope...where there is hope...there is love.’ (Thanks Georgia for this creative nativity scene based on Hope)

It’s Finally Here! Christmas Open House at the Peterson Watercolor Studio! Today and Tomorrow…Check out the information…pick a day and COME!