Give Thanks

"Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel."

Where did November go? I can't believe it's December - and still in the 50's outside. Woo Hoo! I am not a cold weather person. I'm not looking forward to driving in snow.
Thanksgiving. Had a wonderful day with my family. Tommy got up and made everyone a wonderful breakfast so that we could eat dinner a little later this year. We played Christmas music and looked through the ads for the next day. (The weekend before, we put out Christmas lights and decorations.) Tom's mom came over for dinner and we all said what we were thankful for. I am very thankful for my family and that everyone is healthy. I am thankful that my hubby has a good job, we have a home, warm beds, food, clothes,...There are evenings when I'll curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and watch a good show and be thankful. Many nights after tucking everyone safely into their beds, I smile and say "thank you." My life is filled with many blessings. I can have a cup of tea whenever I want. I can take a hot shower everyday. I can go to my kitchen and eat something when I'm hungry. I can put on a sweater or turn the heat up when I'm cold. I can dress our children in clean clothes. I can get them medicine when they're sick. I can give them "juicy" when they're thirsty. We have so much to be thankful for.
Black Friday. Tom and I got up at 4:00am and left for shopping. Jacob came too. We had a wonderful time spending the day together. Plus, it's the one day we give ourselves permission to buy "toys." We shopped for about 12 hours - and thankfully we are done. We went home to eat some leftovers - we had doubled all the sides this year and bought a 20 lb turkey - leftovers were nearly gone when we got home. Our children can eat!
The next day we went to church for Saturday evening mass because our van was still "full." It was nice out, so the 9 of us walked to church. I don't know why we don't do that more often. It was actually very nice - and a lot less stressful then trying to get everyone into 2 cars. Plus, it let our children get some energy out before sitting through mass.
Sunday we got a lot done around here. We moved the baby crib out of the girls' room and into the boys' room. Ethan was pretty excited that Jacob was moving in. Now we just have to get Leah excited about moving into one of the top bunks and Sarah excited about moving into a big girl bed on the bottom bunk. Right now Sarah sleeps on a crib mattress on our bedroom floor. Of course, when she saw her crib in the boys' room she got upset and cried that it was her bed. She hasn't slept in it for weeks - I thought she would happily pass it on to her baby brother. I guess change is hard for everyone though. I'm not looking forward to taking Jacob out of the cradle next to me and into his crib. He sleeps through the night, but I still like the comfort of having him right there - I still check on him during the night. The rest of the day was spent trying to clean and rearrange the 2 bedrooms so that we can bring the girls' dolls upstairs for them to play with - and to get the dolls out of our Family Room so we can put up the Christmas tree.
The next day, our son Noah turned 8 years old! He brought treats to school and I took Leah, Sarah, and Jacob to his school to surprise him for lunch. We brought Wendy's! Love the Frosty! A mother I met a few years ago at Ethan's baseball game was there too. I forgot that we both had boys born on the same day and that they were in the same class this year. She brought Wendy's too. It was nice to sit with another adult and chat during lunch. I really do love going to my children's schools for lunch. I know a lot of the other children at the schools. I love hearing "Hey Noah's mom!" or one of my other children's names :o) For Noah's birthday this year, we got him a Nintendo DSi. His siblings want them / have them so we thought he might. He loves it! We usually either have a party or buy a "bigger" gift. Noah's birthday is right around Thanksgiving and Christmas, so it's easier to get him the bigger gift and let him do something special with 1 friend or family. This year, Tom took him to a Chicago Wolves hockey game. They went last weekend. Noah had a great time! We are now a family of Wolves fans. Noah got a bobble head, a shirt, and a hat. Tom said when they would tell the crowd to make some noise, Noah was the loudest! Everyone around them would look and smile at him. Sounds perfect for Noah. He even had a popcorn fight with one of Tom's co-worker friends.
Today I am trying to play catch-up with our home. Laundry is piled everywhere, items we are going to donate are in bags and boxes all over, and just the everyday things need to be done. So much that has to be done - and so much I'd rather be doing, like Christmas cards, Christmas letters, wrapping, decorating,...My friends and I have a Christmas magnet we'd like to sell for charity, but looks like that'll be on hold until next Christmas. We'll do it. And someday I'll get around to doing the "crafty" things that I'd like to do. I keep putting it on hold to be Mom. That's ok. The right time will come. A year ago I thought was the right time. I had plans, but little did I know that God had a different plan. We would have another son to love and to be thankful for. Another blessing in my life. "Thank you."