Pictures from Christmas 2008

Would you like to see some pictures I took on Christmas? Please go to my MySpace page, and look in my Christmas 2008 picture folder to see. You'll see pictures of my family including husband, my kids, my parents, my sisters and nieces and nephews. Aaron and Leah are my kids, and Meghan is Aaron's girlfriend.

Gifts and Gift Bags

I have been blessed this Christmas season with many unexpected gifts. I mean, I have gotten some nice things from some very nice people. I always try so hard to make my list of everyone I need to buy presents for, but then some people who I never would have thought to buy a gift for bring gifts to me. It is truly a special blessing. At first, I am tempted to think, oh no, they got me something and I don’t have anything for them. But then I realize that is not the reason they gave me a gift. They gave me a gift not because they felt obligated, but simply because they wanted to thank me for something or because they just wanted to give me a gift. I know these people are not going to read this blog, but I would like to say how much these thoughts have blessed my life this Christmas season, and I pray that God will bless each of them richly.

And every time I get one of these gifts, I get so excited about the gift bags! I recycle gift bags by using them for gifts that I give, and every time I get a present in a gift bag, I am thinking, oh goody, now I have another gift bag! Why am I this way? Is it because I was short on gift bags this year? I mean I could have gone to Wal Mart or Target and bought some gift bags, but no! I just re-use old gift bags. And then, if that is not weird enough, after all this I get super conservative about using them. I have them but I won’t use them because I think I might need it at some time in the future. I do this with other things also and I do not know why I always try to conserve things and not use them. What would really be the difference in using it now, or using it in the future?

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Christmas has to be the most wonderful time of the year -- I know it's true because there's a song that says those very words! And I knew it was Christmastime when I got up this morning and all the bedroom doors were closed. That means my daughter and my son are both home. Our family is all together for several days. This could only happen at Christmas! My son's girlfriend was supposed to arrive today, but there were flight problems and now she won't be here until tomorrow. I hope all goes as planned and she makes it here on time so she can spend Christmas with our family.