Gifts for me...they're awesome

This picture...

Came to live at my house on Christmas day. I love it so much it made me cry. It's a gift born out of an idea by Olivia and pursued by my girls. It's very special to me. 

A couple years ago my girls went to New Orleans for a basketball game and while there, Olivia got sick and had to make it home just surviving. It was an awful trip for her. BUT. before she got sick, they found these paintings done by a local artist and each of them got one. 

I wanted all of them! 

Fast forward to Christmas 2015 and Olivia suggested to her sisters they get one for me. The idea was to send the artist a picture of my Dad's family home in Corsicana, the one we call 212 and see if he would paint it. He said he would. So they emailed and sent him pictures and then he made it happen in the best way possible.

It's the perfect mix of Louisiana with some Texas roots mixed in. 

Olivia sent him these pictures of the house.

This is the first sketch sent for their approval.

After some tweeking, he painted an heirloom for my family. I actually want this test sketch as well!

Then....

Back in the fall a limb fell out of the tree in Corsicana.

 John took one of these limbs from it.

It looked like this.

And he made it into this.

I don't know how he did it, but he has the patience and determination that still escapes me on a daily basis. I now have two new very precious gifts from my family and I love them both. All in all it was a good Christmas for me. I hope my peeps Christmas was as good as mine, but I don't see how. Cause they hit this one outta the park for me. 

In the meantime after Christmas the fireplace mantle was finished and hung, made out of Louisiana Cypress. 

Looks so cozy. I'm happy with this as well. Very very...

Christmas 2015 goes down as my best ever I think. 

In another meantime. I've been trying to back up my blog. I think I did, but I'm not sure. Also, I'm thinking about moving my blog. But I think in order to have enough space for it, I'm gonna have to buy a domain name and spend some money to make it happen. SO the jury's still out on the whole thing. And besides, I'm a Major part time blogger right now. I mean lets face it, my consistency has been less than stellar. 

I'll keep people posted on my decision. 

It's taken me multi days to finish this, and now I have.

Good night to me, cause everyone else is asleep.