Our Christmas Miracle

I really stink at this blogging thing! I sincerely apologize to all 4 of my followers :}
I had no idea that it had been over a year since I have made an entry but it sure explains why people keep asking if I am going out of business. I will try to do better this coming year but I am not making any promises! LOL

First, I want to thank everyone who has contributed to the growth of our business this year. There have been so many of you who have passed our info along to your friends and family and for that I am very grateful !! It brings me great pleasure to be able to say that 2010 has been our best year yet, in spite of the poor state of the economy. It so easily could have gone the other way! I really appreciate your support, it is not just something that I say as an email closing. Without you guys I don't have a business and I know it, so thank you...thank you...thank you!! :}

To those of you who were caught up in our shipping delay because of inclement weather, I want you to know that I truly am grateful for your patience and I hope that everyone who needed their packages by Christmas received them. All others were shipped as well, prior to closing for the holidays. The only ones that did not get out until today are the orders that were placed on the 16th thru the 20th. The plan had been to ship those on Christmas eve, but life threw me a curve ball ! I have since mailed your bows but there for a while it was not looking good!

We left our house Christmas Eve to have dinner at my granny's house and when we came home we discovered that someone had unscrewed the bulbs in all of our security lights, kicked in the door and completely wiped us out of everything in our house that was of any value...including all of our Christmas presents. I don't think that I have every been as devastated about anything in my entire life! The last time I remember feeling this helpless was when Katie was born 3 months early.

Anybody who knows me knows that I am always the one in control and always the one running around trying to make life better for everyone else in my life. This time...well, there just are not words to express how utterly useless I was...
Even if I had had a million dollars to replace the kid's Christmas presents, it would have done me absolutely zero good since nothing was open!! All I could do was cry on my mom's shoulder while hiding behind the car so Katie couldn't see me!

It wasn't so much the material things that upset me. We are insured and "things" can be replaced. It was having our home...our safe place....violated. The jokers who broke in here ransacked my house. They emptied all of my drawers into the floor and pawed thru my underwear. They took family heirlooms and items that had sentimental value that can never be replaced. They took away our sense of security and that is going to take some time to get back...if we ever do. I know that I shouldn't feel this way, but I would love to have 5 minutes alone in a room with whoever did this....it would NOT be pretty!

On a brighter note....my cousin and his wife were among my "first responders". The very first thing that they did was to put it out on her facebook account telling their friends what had happened. Within less than an hour people were showing up at my house to help out and calling to tell them that they were on the way with presents for the kids! This continued all night long and most of Christmas Day. I will be eternally grateful for every person that stepped up and showed Katie that for every bad person that's out there there are dozens more who are good, honest and caring and willing to help out in a pinch.
It absolutely blew me away that people were showing up at my house to help BEFORE the police even arrived...and all I could do was cry!

We will forever be grateful to every person who contributed to Katie, Logan and Leah's Christmas this year! The little kids were not aware that anything had happened because they had not arrived yet from Ohio. In the amount of time it takes to drive from Ohio...12 hours...their gifts had been replaced and then some! This was by far the best Christmas ever for the kids!

I have a new appreciation for Facebook. I feel validated in my belief that most people are truly good and honest. I am just so thankful that there are so many people in my life who are supportive of me. I am blessed.

I never want to experience anything like this again. I admit that I am having a difficult time working through it. Simply making a list of missing items for the police and filling out claim forms for the insurance company keep causing me to relive the losses. It makes me angry when I think of special gifts that I had picked out for each child or things that were on their "list" that they didn't get. I'm ticked off that we had nothing to give our family. It is hard to sleep in a room that just a few days ago had at least one stranger in there dumping everything on the floor and taking what they wanted. Sigh....life goes on....

Thankfully, the business was not affected and we will rock on without missing a beat! :}
The office will remain closed until January 3rd for the holidays, but we will back with new items and I will have a better attitude by then! LOL

I hope that each of you have a Happy New Year and I hope that you enjoy the sale! I look forward to working really hard for you this coming year!

Until next time...