Thankful

I am so thankful of my friend who took this great picture, she's awesome, isn't she??

I am thankful of my babies, I am thankful to have a wonderful husband, I am thankful we keep each other on our toes and we don't put up with one another nitty gritty stuff, we are honest and yes we laugh a lot and of course we do have arguments, sometimes they are silly, sometimes they are serious but I'm thankful for each one of this moments we have together!!

I am thankful to be a part of a group that is learning to grow together as we do bible study, to share, to laugh, to think, to recognize our faults, to want to do better as we go in this journey each week and actually every day.

There are so many things I'm thankful for, it's hard to even begin to put them on a list. All I know is that I love Thanksgiving time, it makes me exercise in my mind all the things I so greatfully appreciate in my life!!

This year we are having lunch at our house, normally I do Christmas Eve but since I'll be bigger than the biggest Santa you ever saw I felt it would be better if I did my duty for this celebration and pass the torch to someone else for the next one. :)

I like cooking but I'm not confident enough to bake a turkey, so I told my mother-in-law if she would do the turkey I'd do everything else and put the house, she accepted my deal and everything is ready for our lunch tomorrow. I am excited, I like to have this get together because my goal is to make it as simple as possible so we can actually enjoy ourselves instead of just being stress out over the cooking, the decorating, the cleaning and all that. I know this time a year people pull their most fine china out of the cabinet and make everything look perfect, call me a redneck but I don't have china (I totally don't see the point to have it, may be when I'm older I'll change my mind), I buy pretty paper plates, who wants to do dishes on Thanksgiving, I just want to sit down and enjoy the time together, isn't that what all this is about??? May be is because my Mom - because of her job - had to work harder on every holiday, which put a chip in my brain to chose not to stress over the holidays, not to over work myself unless absolutely necessary (that day hasn't come yet) but to enjoy it. I want Nicolas and Emilia to grow up and have good memories of this times, I know so many people who don't even decorate their house because they have such a bad memories of the holidays, the stress and the work can make moms mean, it wasn't my case, my mom was always sweet although she worked herself way too much.

Can't wait to put up our Christmas Tree and the few little things that I put up this time of year. Believe it or not I kept my Nativity scene up all year, I strongly felt the need to do it as a reminder of how important that day is for us. Not sure any of my family members noticed but I did :) Well may be Nicolas enjoyed playing with the cow from the nativity and occasionally he got Mary out of her place to show me baby Jesus.

This is one of my favorite times of the year, it's been since I was a little girl. Growing up in South America, December marked the end of a school year, my birthday, my mom's birthday, Christmas and the beginning of summer, what else could a little girl like me wanted. All the things that were huge in life started in the same month. I guess in my subconscious mind I still have that joy and excitement.

During these celebrations I always think of those who have lost a family member (I know plenty of families who will be hurting because it will be their first Thanksgiving and Christmas without their dad, without their child, etc) how hard and painful is that, can you even begin to imagine ... I truly can't. I just know the only thing that can get them through is the love of our Father and the support of their loving ones here on earth. I think of my mom, who's only child decided to move to the other side of the world but I am happy to know we have tons of family who are making sure she's happy, filled with love and excited to spend another end of the year with them.

What do you think about during this time of year? Does it make you happy? Does it make you sad? Do you ever think about it?

Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving to all!!