Thankfulness

My favorite holiday of all is Thanksgiving.  November has always been my favorite month... well, as an adult anyway.  As a child it was December and Christmas.  I love the fact that most of us get time off from work and school to get together with our family & friends and just spend time with each other.  No presents, no big parties, no stress... just time to enjoy each other, time to slow down and get re-acquainted with one another.  The added bonus is all the great food we get to eat.  =]  We allow our busy lives to take over, consume us, and take away precious time and would-be memories.  So November is my month to slow down, be thankful, and enjoy what God has blessed me with.  (I'm still working on letting the rest of the months be more about life and less about stuff).

I am grateful for so many things in my life that God has blessed me with that I don't even deserve:

• A wonderful and loving husband that supports, provides, loves, and takes care of his family.
• A funny teenage son with an awesome, creative imagination that reminds me to laugh, that life can be funny.  Also, that life can be fleeting as he is 3.5 short years away from leaving our home and getting out in the big, wide, world.
• A beautiful, loving pre-teen daughter that doesn't conform to the world but allows herself to be her own person.
• A little guy that has so much energy and charm, that still loves to cuddle and has so much innocence in him.
• A beautiful home where I can surround myself with loving things given to us or created by family.
• Parents that will do anything for me, that instill values in their family, that are still together after 57 years.
• Brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews that number 50+ when we all get together for holidays and birthdays.  There is nothing quite like the roar of the Goins' when we all get together.
• The unity and family fun that is there at any family function we go too, whether it be with the Smith's, the Roger's, or the Goins'.
• Our church home and church family that we are blessed to be a part of for almost 13 years now.  The friendships we have formed in our brothers and sisters are lifetime, loving.
• The many friends, both old and new, close and distant, that make up the bounty of people in our lives.
• So many things I am grateful for, but the thing I am most grateful for is the love of my Savior.  I am glad He chose to send His only Son as a sacrifice to save me from the burning pits of hell even though there is nothing in me that deserves it.

I have so enjoyed seeing the lists of gratitude and thankfulness this month.  My prayer is that we could all see how much we truly have every single day, especially on those days when we feel empty, when we feel like we have nothing.

Hoping you had a blessed Thanksgiving, a time of reflection, surrounded by loved ones.  Wishing you a wonderful Christmas, remembering the greatest present any of us could receive... our dear Savior's birth.