yellow shoe day: WELCOME DECEMBER

December is here! Our tree is up, our house is decorated, and all my shopping is finished. But sit back and relax I cannot. This month is the busiest on record for our family. All good things though. I love this time of year; the planning, the cooking, the Christmasy activities.

There is so much to be thankful for.

My Christmas List

My kids don't write letters to Santa, or make Christmas lists, or spend time looking at toy catalogs. I don't know why that is. We haven't forbidden it. I know there are things they would like to have, but they don't ask. Somehow we have managed to raise kids who think it's not all about the presents. I have no great parenting skill or advice on this but I'm happy that's the way it is. I know I have certainly been pining over the catalogs that fill my mailbox this month. But I have gotten some really great gifts already this year.
So my Christmas List is my gratitude list. My ongoing counting of 1000 Gifts. Here goes...

593. Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes
594. watching my 11 year old son stand in front of the church and ask for 100 boxes
595. watching him shake hands with Franklin Graham

596. and meet a young woman who received a shoebox in a Russian orphanage as a child

597. watching the 6th graders unload the boxes and form a chain to the door of the school

598. enjoying his "moment of fame" as the kid who brought over 100 boxes

599. hearing the true stories of hope that a box of pencils, candy and toothpaste can bring

600. the first snow fall
601. the way the fog froze on the trees the other morning and made everything glitter on the way to school
602. the smell of a fresh tree when you bring it home

603. my paperwhites about to burst open and fill my kitchen with their scent