Thankful

This will be my last post until after Thanksgiving. I probably won't return until the Tuesday after Thanksgiving because we have a busy week and family to visit, etc. So I won't have much time for blogging I am afraid.

Mat and I took the kids to a local state park today to take our annual Christmas photos of them. It went pretty well. We took 125 pictures and were able to pick our 4 to use for this year. It is hard to get three kids to cooperate for a pictures - especially outside. But it is done.

I am going to share some pictures on this blog today from our photo shoot, but I will not be sharing the final ones. Those I will reserve for family and those who receive our annual Christmas card.
Today in church, a young man sung a song. It talked about being thankful for what we have even with so much that is sad or hurtful in the world. At this time of year, we remember all that our family is thankful for.


This summer, we were given news about Finley that made us sad and angry. But in the midst of that, we were thankful for many things about the situation. We were thankful that she still has her sight now. We were thankful that is was not life threatening. We were thankful that research is making such amazing strides that we may see a cure in the very near future.


We are thankful that all of our children are healthy. There are so many blogs I read where the families are dealing with serious illnesses with their children.

We are thankful that we added two new members to our extended family this year. Well - almost two! Our nephew who was born in June, and I have a niece due to be born in just a few weeks. We love that our family is growing by leaps and bounds and that each Christmas will be filled with more joy and laughter of all of the kids.

We are thankful for our jobs. In an economy that has still not improved, we are lucky to both be working full time in areas we enjoy.

We are thankful for our home. We take it for granted how lucky we are that we have a warm, beautiful home to come to after work each day.


I could go on forever. We take everyday things for granted. We expect our home, our jobs, our health to be there. We get upset at the little things that happen. The stress of the holidays sometimes outweighs what is really important.


Our pastor talked this morning about how Christmas has become what we as a society has made it, and the real meaning is lost. She's right. We get caught up in finding the perfect present or making the perfect meal, and forget that all we really need is spending time with each other.

We have been really good at eating dinner together as a family. It gives us a chance to talk about our days. It shows our kids that family meal time and spending time together is a top priority for us.


As the kids get older, I hope to instill family game night as well. We love playing games together, and it will be another time we can all be together doing an activity.

Time passes quickly. The baby stage of my kids is over. We will never again have a little baby in our house. It is sad in a lot of ways. But I am thankful for each new stage that my kids are in. I am thankful I am watching them grow into wonderful little people and decent human beings.

This is the first year in 12 years that Mat and I will be having Thanksgiving with family. We have always lived too far away from family to make a trip to see them over such a short holiday.


But this year, we are anxious to spend this holiday with our family and show them how thankful we are for them.



Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I will be back to blogging after the holiday weekend! I can't believe by then it will be December!