25 Days Until Christmas!"

Happy 1st Day of the
"25 Days Until Christmas"!!!

I Love Gifts. I mean I just love them. I love giving them, I love receiving them. There is nothing better than finding the perfect gift for someone you are thinking of. One thing my sweet sis-in-law and I do, are to surprise each other with "happys" when we are together. It's certainly neverexpected, and it's not all the time, but we have so much joy in finding fun things that we would never purchase for ourselves ~ and it doesn't ever get old!

Some of the best gifts, however are ones that don't come in a "box or bag":
My personal favorites:
Unexpected Kisses from an almond-eyed 16 month-old
& Great Conversations (time) with my 16 year-old

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

God, thank you for the gift of our daughter this year. Thank you for giving her birth-mother the strength and courage to let her go and trust that she will be taken care of and loved. She is a gift that I will forever treasure, adore and be thankful for. She has blessed our lives eternally. And just like you gave your son to us, may we never take this love for granted.

Here is a gift to you: the scripture that helps us with our life's journey

"Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way." James 1-4 MSG