Thankful

At the end of this wonderful Christmas season and poised on the eve of a new year, I can't help but reflect and be thankful for all the wonderful blessings in my life.

First and foremost, I am thankful for my sweet husband and two beautiful and healthy and thriving children. I am blessed that Corin shares my values and beliefs and agrees that it is important to pass those on to our kids. I am thankful for the precious time we had as a family, all cuddled up before bedtime on Christmas Eve, reading the story of Jesus' birth from the kids' Book of Bible Stories. I am grateful for the time we spent trying to focus their excited little minds on the true reason that we celebrate Christmas.

I am thankful that Kerry and Kate were willing to leave behind two feet of snow in New York and come spend Christmas in the balmy south. I am grateful that my kids are blessed to have two aunts who love them dearly and play with them tirelessly each time we see them. I am thankful for sweet in-laws who came from Knoxville to help us start new traditions of celebration in our home: decorating sugar cookies, being together in a crowded kitchen while everyone worked together as a team to create a yummy Christmas Eve meal, singing Christmas carols around the table after Christmas Eve dinner was finally consumed, and so on.

I am thankful for my family - 22 people strong this year - as we celebrated Christmas at Lake Hartwell, as has been our tradition for the last few years. I am blessed to have such a large, close-knit family that creates such fun chaos each year when we are all together. Though we missed my cousin Jeff and my cousin Matt's daughter Amanda this year, we were all thrilled to welcome my cousin Melissa's 12-day-old son Michael into the the family. I am thankful for Evan and Pressley's cousins Will and Abby and Sydney who make these gatherings so much fun for them.

I am thankful for all the many wonderful friends who made this Christmas season special by riding the Pink Pig with us, hosting a fun tree-trimming party, inviting me to a cookie swap, attending a Sunday School Christmas party in our home - complete with a rousing-and-sometimes-playfully-hostile white elephant gift exchange.... So many wonderful memories over the last couple of weeks.

I hope your Christmas was as merry as ours and I hope you have as much to be thankful for as we do. Next time you catch me complaining about some little insignificant thing, somebody please remind me of all the things I have to be thankful for.

Feel free to check out the several links under Albums of all of our Christmas fun.