Hello everyone...welcome to the very last FFF of the year 2017. Thanks for sticking with me for another 52 posts of purposefully being grateful for good things in our everyday. Hopefully it made a difference for you as it did for me. So onto last week. There was so much to be grateful for this week of Christmas but I will stick to five.
~all the kids safely home for Christmas~ Oh my word... if nothing else this is the one that made my heart burst and for which I was most thankful for. As my kids have grown into adults with lives of their own, one married and two living 5 - 7 hours away, and jobs that come into play, some Christmases we've missed one or the other. But this year, despite the winter roads and bitter cold weather, we were all together. Four wonderful days! The best gift!
~celebrating the birth of Christ and 2 family birthdays~ Christmas celebrated this year with both old family traditions and making new ones as the family grows and changes. I love celebrating the birth of our savior Jesus and keeping the focus on the real reason for this magical season. This year I really liked that Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday. We don't always get to make an evening candlelight service so it was really nice to be able to go to church in the morning.
And then my daughter has a Christmas day birthday and mine is this week also so on Christmas Eve day after church we went as a family and celebrated with all you can eat sushi. We usually always go out on the date of my birthday but this year we won't all be together that day so Christmas Eve it was. It was so much fun and so delicious. And it totally kicked off a 3 day feasting fest.
~feasting~ next to family being together, I love the feasting that comes with the holidays. Yes I unashamedly love food, especially food that goes with holidays. Christmas Eve was the finger food deliciousness of the yearly open house at our niece's home. I usually cook a turkey Christmas Day but this year we had my Dad at our holiday dinner and he's allergic to turkey so I made pork loin and at my birthday girl's request...perogies and stuffing. LOL. It was delicious and turned out pretty awesome except for the perogies sticking together but I tried not to worry about it too much. Seeing as there would be no dripping to make gravy from and we needed it for the stuffing, I tried Jamie Oliver's make ahead gravy and oh boy what a stress reliever and so good! Then Boxing Day for my mom, my brother in law made the turkey. It was sooo good. I'm so very thankful for the blessing of being able to celebrate with good food.
~the gift of beautiful Christmas Eve sunset~ On our way to our niece's for the Christmas Eve open house we were gifted to see this gorgeous, frosty cold coulee sunset. God really is the best artist!
~sleeping in~ after all the feasting, visiting, extra activity and staying up late I have so appreciated being able to sleep in this week. No dayhome, it's my holiday week from work and it's been so nice just to relax, sleep past that 6:10 a.m. usual alarm and just let the day go where it will.
Such a busy, wonderful, celebratory, family and food filled week! What were your favorites from the last week?
Wishing you and your family a wonderful New Year! Looking forward to a whole new year of celebrating the blessings in our lives at the end of each week .
9 comments:
i totally agree about all the family being together and that we could go to church on Xmas eve a.m. As well as the candlelight service!
I've been eating WAY too many sweets this month between my birthday, 2 friends bdays, my nephew, my daughter, me, and another nephew plus Xmas cookies.....yikes.....but isn't it fun to celebrate and we can always purge our bodies next week!!😜
Love your photos and Happy Birthday!!!!
And Happy New Year! I'm very thankful for the FFF.
Belated happy birthday! I did remember your daughter having a Christmas birthday when another friend delivered her very overdue baby on Christmas Day this year! Having all the kids home was one of my faves, too. I know it may not always happen, so I treasure it when it does. I loved having Christmas Eve on Sunday, too. And, oh my, the feasting! What a gorgeous winter sunset. Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday to you all! Glad you were together.
Love that sunset picture!
I agree with you that food enhances celebrations so much. We talk way too much about diets and foods we "shouldn't have." People should just enjoy it!! :-)
Happy New Year to you, and thank you for this Fave Five forum each week.
How exciting to have them all together. I hope you have are wonderful weekend and Happy New Year! I don't always get time to post comments but I drop by whenever I can! Blessings and hugs to you and yours!
A wonderful Christmas! With all the family together, nothing is better! It has been several years for us to have been all together. This year we were missing only my oldest son and his family.
Feasting--yes, we have had so much food--we're still eating leftovers.
Happy Birthday to you and your daughter!!
And Happy New Year!
It sounds like the most wonderful Christmas! Lots of good food, some good sleep, and best of all having all those kids home! I keep wondering how we will ever make that happen again? Someday! Happiest of birthdays to you and your daughter!
Hooray for all the kids making it home for Christmas! Happy birthday to you! How nice that you have the week off. Happy New Year to you and yours, Susanne!
Just catching up on some posts Suzanne. Sorry to hear you were unwell before Christmas. I hope you're fully recovered. Lovely to have all your family around at this time of year and sounds like you had a great time. Happy New Year.
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