If you don’t believe in Christmas miracles, this story just might change your mind.

We left our daughter’s house in Grand Forks, North Dakota on Sunday morning. After driving for two hours, we dropped our son Jack at his house in Detroit Lakes Minnesota. And from there we had another three hours to go before arriving home.

Thirty minutes into the drive….I needed to stop and use a restroom, so we pulled into a Casey’s General Store. I asked Wade to go in with me only because I always feel bad when I go into a store with the sole purpose of using the restroom and don’t buy anything. I asked Wade to grab me a water and some Hot Tamales candy along with whatever he was getting.

I proceeded to use the resting room, joined Wade to pay for our items and jumped back into the car to continue our drive.

After a very uneventful two and a half hours, we arrived home and proceeded to unload the car. Presents, suitcases and odds and ends were all brought inside.

But……I couldn’t find my purse anywhere. I instantly panicked, ripped the car apart hoping I had missed it and then started wracking my brain where I could have left it. We had gone into Jack’s house when we dropped him off so I frantically called him to see if it was still there.

No purse.

And then I remembered.

I thought I had been so brilliant by hanging my purse on the large door hinge which kept it off the bathroom floor. So brilliant in fact that after washing my hands, I walked out of the bathroom without my purse!

My purse that holds my world. Not only was my billfold with all forms of identity in there, several credit cards and a little cash, but my beloved little Louis Vuitton satchel that Wade surprised me with over twenty years ago.

Thankful for a fast internet, I called the New York Mills Casey’s store within two seconds and blurted out my story. The wonderful young lady that answered replied that they had been trying to find me! They had searched Facebook and even called the police to help. I thanked her over and over and over and told her that our son Jack would be there soon to pick it up.

Once Jack had picked up my purse, I had him check to make sure everything was in there. The twenty or so dollars were in the cash part of my billfold along with all of my credit cards and drivers license.

And then I held my breath until he told me that my beloved little Louis was still there.

A Christmas Miracle. 🙂

And now, here are some other chair before and afters for you. Two miracle makeovers and two not so miraculous makeovers.

I found this adorable chair at an Estate Sale. It was nice and sturdy, but the insides were junk. 🙁  So it became adorable firewood.

One of these chairs sits in my loft area, and the other I use in the loft bedroom. Since they were no longer a couple, I decided to make a slip cover for the bedroom chair.

It’s safe to say that I failed miserably at this DIY. I lovingly called this the Pocahontas chair makeover.

These final two before and afters were successes. This rocking chair, I keep in our  bedroom. I tried to sell it once, but put too high of a price on it. My subconscious didn’t really want to get rid of it.

And believe it or not, this is the same chair and was used for years in Samantha’s first apartment.

I hope you enjoyed today’s episode of Before and After.

~Wendy