What really matters....

With the help of my wonderful husband and daughter this past weekend I was able to finish preparing for Christmas. Now I can look forward to the BEST part of Christmas and what really matters.

Listening and watching Craig and Jordan make Christmas cookies. I love how Craig teacher her his tricks and how they work so well together.

The gang is all home from college! Watching Caleb and Josh spend time with each other for the first time since August makes me smile. Love, love, love the sound of their laughter filling the house.

I can actually sit back and enjoy my decorations. Simple they may be but they make me happy.

Remembering where each one came from......

Each morning looking out the window to see if snow has fallen. Doesn't look like we are going to have a white Christmas this year.

Sitting in the dark with the Christmas tree on, the TV off and talking to the ones I love.

Snuggling with my tired puppies at the end of the day. Watching them all compete for the best spot next to me.

Caleb and Jordan may be 20 and 22 but Santa still brings them gifts. As I am wrapping gifts it's fun for me to decide what gifts are Santa worthy.

If you open your eyes and really look you can see Christmas everywhere. Jesus is there but you have to look. Sit back and watch and your heart will be warmed by what you see. I saw someone order 10 speciality coffee drinks at McDonalds the other day. Who was going to be the lucky recipients of that nice gesture? Jordan and I were passing a bell ringer the other day and I had no cash to put in the bucket. Jordan quickly dug in her purse and found enough for both of us to put money in the bucket. I've watched the teens at church do a toy drive so they could give Christmas gifts to the children of the food pantry patrons every weekend in December. The list goes on and on.

One thing that I'm trying to do is make more of an effort to strike up conversations with strangers. Try it! You may be the only bright part to that person's day. And what I find is that more often than not I walk away with a wonderful feeling.

An amazing thing happened to me at work the other day. A patient who I have worked with for a long time brought me a book about angels and told me what an angel I had been to them throughout a very difficult time they had been going through. As this patients health improved they stopped in again to see me and brought me another book about miracles. He felt like he had been given the gift of a miracle from God. WOW! It's hard for me to talk about that one without being brought to tears.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.