MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

okay so I love changing my main photo! Too FUN!!! The picture was taken the night we had our gingerbread house contest. THE GIRLS WON!!! Oh, Did I say that already?????? haha! It was a fun night with only one shadow, that Matthew and his girlfriend Lindsay weren't there. Maybe next year?! (if mommy could will it, it would happen!)

This morning the first thing we did, after having our coffee was talk to Matt and Lindsay. John had found this really cool "model" helicopter for Matthew of Pavelow. It was really neat, he sent us a picture of himself holding it. (he really loved it) It is gorgeous and made out of really nice wood.

Every year, until this one, the first thing I have done was gotten up and looked out the window, hoping for a white world to greet me. I always wondered why I did that until recently when my sister Connie and I were talking about me doing that. She told me that when we were kids, living in Twin Falls, Idaho, there was this time that it was really warm on Christmas eve, with no snow in sight and actually almost shorts-type weather, but when we woke up the next morning the world was covered in white! It was, to be absolutely 100% cliche', MAGICAL!!!!! Every morning since then, I have looked out at the world, hoping to recapture that same feeling of awe and wonder that I felt that morning when I was young. I believe that year was the year I got my Gentle Ben talking bear (he accompanied me to college and holds many tears in the fur on his head) and my little soft bodied doll, one just like the one I bought Little Miss Lucy this Christmas, I was six. This has been a strange year, for many reasons. The economy, the kids' lives, sports, friends coming and going, and other sad and tragic reasons, but the funny thing is, as I hear our kids laugh over their Parcheesi game or play Mario Kart on the Wii, or hear our oldest son and his sweet southern girlfriends voice on the phone, I feel a sense of peace, of joy, and of, well being. Is all right in my world? No. Is all right in my kids' worlds? No. And yet, I know we are all alright. We are all going to be just fine. Why? Well, because I know that my Lord is still on the throne. I know that when I lay my head down at night my kids and my little grandbaby are in God's hands. I know that I can do anything through Christ, because it is He who gives me strength and I know that I am in the best family a woman could want. I am so grateful, so blessed.

Have a Very Very Merry Christmas!