So Blessed!

I've been thinking this morning about how blessed I am.  

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with friends and family here at the house.  You can read all about it and see a few pictures on Curtis' blog here.  I am especially thankful to have my grandmother still living.  It was a blessing to have her here along with my aunt and uncle from the Phoenix area and my sister and her family up from Las Cruces.  (Thank you all for coming!!!)

My dear husband had to work today, not exactly what he wanted to do since it is the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the day before Curtis leaves to go back to school.  Never-the-less off he went to work with nary a complaint!  What a faithful provider God has blessed our family with.

Curtis is willing spending his last day of break decorating our home for the Advent/Christmas season.  It is windy and cold outside today, yet he just keeps hanging up the outside lights and patiently teaching his three little brothers godly manhood.  If you know Curtis you know he is all about intentionality.  He has learned to be even more so, in my opinion, through his time in Moscow.  We are blessed to be hearing all about Sabbath Dinners, hospitality, etc.  We will miss him as he heads back to school early tomorrow morning but will eagerly wait his return in just three weeks for his Christmas break.

We will decorate inside when they are done outside.  We like to use greenery and nativity scenes for most of our decorating.  We're still debating if we want to put up a tree this year There is never a really good place for one and doing the furniture shuffle seems less than appealing. We'll post some pictures when we get it done. 

Caity woke up yesterday with the stomach bug, but if you know Caity you know it was endured with a quiet acceptance.  She is feeling much better and finally ate a small cup of soup for lunch. So far so good.  We are looking forward to the house being filled with the delicious smells from her Christmas baking list.  She is planning on making gift baskets for Chris' employees and the items on her list....yummy!

Life is good here and I am acutely aware of God's provision in our lives.  We are blessed to have a warm beautiful home on this cold day and plenty of wood for the fireplace, there is a roast cooking for another bountiful meal tonight, we will get to worship the Triune God with our church family tomorrow in a very intentional, meaningful way.

Advent starts tomorrow and I am really looking forward to our celebration of it this year.  For at least 10 years we've read a book out of an advent series (there are three books and we rotate each year) but this year we are adding "Readings and Devotions for Advent, 12 Days of Christmas, and Epiphany".  This is a wonderful time of year and I am thankful for all of it!