The Holidays are Officially Upon Us!!!!

Okay I admit it....I am a complete Christmas geek! I love everything about the holidays beginning with Thanksgiving. I love to cook Thanksgiving dinner! Most people dread the thought of an all day cooking excursion but I actually love it. The smells permeating through the house....having family together.....thinking about how blessed we really are and remembering the reason for the day. This year I am thankful for so many things......I am thankful for my wonderful husband who is also my best friend. I am thankful for all my friends, some new, some old, but all of them are precious to me. I am thankful for my small group........we are able to share together, play together, laugh together, cry together and be there for one another. I am thankful for my parents who are both still alive, they have taught me to be the person that I am and my Mother in particular is so precious to me. I am thankful that the Mother I love so much is travelling here from California to spend Christmas with us....I am so excited I can hardly stand it! Soon I will begin my Holiday Baking Extraviganza! This involves me spending two entire weekends doing nothing but holiday baking. I give alot of it out as gifts because I believe giving someone something that is made with your hands means more than something you just go out and buy. I LOVE to bake so I look forward to this event every year. Once the baking is done we will go out and get our tree and decorate the house. We have a HUGE Christmas village that we put up and each year we buy one or two more buildings for it. Pretty soon we are going to have to move to a bigger place just to fit our village! On December 20th my Mom and Stepdad will arrive....what a blessing to be able to spend the week with the people who mean so much to me. I have the whole week planned out already (I'm sure we won't stick to the plan). We are going to do some shopping, check out the new PF Chang's across the street, do alot of cooking and just enjoy being together. I LOVE the holidays and everything it represents. Celebrating the birth of Jesus, spending time with loved ones, realizing how blessed we are and reaching out to help others . Isnt' this what life is supposed to be about? I wish everyone the happiest of holiday seasons...however you celebrate!