an unpleasant adventure

For those of you keeping score at home, I was going to keep right on making Christmas cards, with no post-holiday break.  I also thought - though I hadn't admitted it yet - that I would take more general (or non-card) photos this year, too.  Life had other plans for us, though, as you can see from this early morning photo Tom took on Christmas Day:

Today, the decorated tree still stands where you can see it above, but the garage  and mudroom/pantry to the north are gone.  This is what they looked like on Boxing Day:

The only difference in this view today is a lot more snow.  Although we were lucky to be able to engage the contractors we prefer, and our homeowner's insurance will provide for replacement of the building and contents, the progress has been incredibly slow.  A few days ago, the large pieces of dining room and living room furniture were finally removed for cleaning, and today Dennis and David started clearing out the kitchen so they can take it apart and begin the rebuilding process. 

We have been lucky in many ways and truly blessed with caring family, friends, and neighbors.  Both of us and both of our dogs were out of the building well & safely within minutes of the explosion that woke me; our neighbors were standing in the yard next to us in just a few minutes more.  My brother and our son also joined us early that morning.  The local firefighters were able to put out the blaze before we lost everything, although they thought at one point that wouldn't be possible.  We have a place to stay, conveniently located and dogs welcome, which was available on Christmas day.  We were able to buy two cars within two weeks and return the borrowed cars that my sister Sandy and friend Skip thoughtfully and generously provided on Christmas day.  There are so many more people who provided necessities and niceties that I can't list them all here without boring all of you and bringing me to tears

As is usual for me in January, I've worked many 9 & 10 hour days, but as of this afternoon, I've brought over enough card-making supplies to provide some stress relief for the future.  Tom hung up a decent light for me, and I'm hoping to spend some creative time working on some challenges.  Now if I can just find the cable I need for uploading photos...