Christmas Blessings!

Merry Christmas...I hope that everyone had a Very Merry Christmas!  I love this time of the year. Despite all of the bad things that are going on in the world, Christmas feels so magical to me.  It's probably my favorite holiday of the year.  I love everything about the season from all of the movies to the decorations.  I absolutely love decorating my home for Christmas.  The day after Thanksgiving I'm ready to go!  The season started off a little sad for me because I thought I wasn't going to be able to decorate due to financial reasons.  I was down because this was me and my husbands first Christmas as a married couple and I wanted to make our home special for the holidays.  But I told myself that I wasn't going to worry about it and that it would work out.  My youngest brother gave me a call and told me that he would take me shopping for decorations.  Ahhh...oh the joy!! I guess he felt sorry for me because he knew how much I was looking forward to decorating.  I was so very excited.  Once they were up, my husband told me that he saw the extra effort that I was putting into making our first Christmas in our apartment special and that he appreciated it.  That made me even happier!  I was so thankful that God laid it on his heart to do that for me lol.

My husband and I wanted to do a random act of kindness for someone this year.  We chose an elderly family that lives in our complex.  It's a son and a mother and the son cares for his mom who is 100+ years old.  We have never met the mom but we have met the son.  He is a very nice man. My husband says that he is the nicest person that he has ever met in his entire life.  Through conversation we learned that he loves Target.  So for Christmas, we bought them a Target gift card and put it inside of a Christmas card.  We were so excited to give it to him.  The first day we stopped by his house there was no answer.  The second and third time we went by there was no answer either.  My husband told me not to worry about it and that he would catch.  We were literally stalking his apt lol.  My husband finally caught up with him and oh his reaction was priceless!  He was so grateful and thankful that we thought of them.  There is no feeling like being a blessing to others.  It is one of the greatest feelings ever.

Another thing that I enjoy about the Christmas holiday is my family's Christmas morning tradition that started when we were very young children.  My parents, siblings, and I would all gather around the Christmas tree first thing in the morning and my dad would say a prayer of Thanksgiving.  We would then begin to exchange gifts.  We still continue this tradition and it was a blessing to have my husband  and stepson there with us this year.  I look forward to our family continuing to grow and continuing our tradition.  It's a blessing to be able to spend the holidays with family.  That means more to me than any material gift ever will!

With Gallons of Love,

J.G.