Wrapping Up a Month of Thankful Days

My first picture requires a bit of a story...when I was growing up, I remember that many of my dad's most delicious creations came about on evenings when we looked in the fridge and cabinets and wondered "what on earth can we possibly make out of this stuff?" I think that those adventurous (and, surprisingly, always delicious) meals sparked in me a love for the challenge of making a decent meal when the cabinets are bare. Lucas and I bought 2 weeks worth of groceries...sort of...I was hoping to clean out the fridge and cabinets a little, and I succeeded! Sure, when we returned home from Lala's, our fridge looked like this:

But, you can ask Lucas, we still ate some delicious - and somewhat creative - meals! Challenge accepted and conquered! No worries, moms. I went and bought groceries and now our cabinets and fridge are full (with products that have perfectly respectable expiration dates)!

I am thankful for:

Sunday:

Christmas decorations! I pulled out all of our decorations, expecting (as I have in past years) to have them all up before the end of the evening. Not even close, I barely have the majority right now! But there is something wonderful about pulling out the decorations - the smell, the memories, the reminder of what they symbolize. I especially enjoyed pulling out the number of nativities I have begun to collect. The God who created everything, the God who created the planets and sent the swirling into space, the God who could do anything, came down to earth as a baby. No pomp. No grand entrance. Born in a stable surrounded by animals. This season marks the beginning of the greatest love story that exists, and every decoration I put up reminds me of the ultimate thing for which I am thankful - God's love and salvation, given through His Son.

Monday:

Shatterproof tree decorations: Confession - my tree is a hand-me-down, and all the ornaments are also hand-me-downs or I bought them at a garage sale (new!) for $2. The true beauty of this decoration is not the bargain, it is that everything on that tree is durable enough to withstand toddlers. Each morning since the tree has stood it is stripped of decorations as far up as they can reach, and they spend the better part of the day:

collecting them in the container,

Gathering them in their arms (and occasionally tasting them),
and dumping them out and all over,

They LOVE the tree.

I'm just thankful that someone was smart enough to make decorations that could withstand this kind of handling!

Patient twins: Who not only endured an especially long grocery shopping trip (due to the empty fridge and pantry), but 2 more stores in addition to our normal 2 for some Christmas shopping. It was a l-o-n-g morning, but they were troopers!

Cyber Monday: I finished almost all of my Christmas shopping and some AMAZING deals! Granted, after 2+ hours on hold with Khols when their website wouldn't work (I'm guessing the volume crashed it), and 2 e-mails, I'm still waiting to hear if I can order my items and get the discounts I would have had if their website hadn't crashed. But otherwise my cyber Monday shopping was highly successful!

Girl's Night Out: Sure, our "night out" was only me keeping her company while she grocery shopped, but it was fun nonetheless!

Tuesday:

Lunch with Daddy: The cloudy skies of Michigan's winter have settled in, and we were going a bit stir-crazy. We headed over to the church for a change of pace. It was great, and I think we're going to have to make it at least a weekly occurrence!

A habit of thankfulness: This month has been a great practice in thankfulness, and hopefully it will carry into the next year (all year will be great!).

All of you! I honestly think it is a true sign of love when you faithfully read our daily adventures. Often our daily events and adventures aren't terribly exciting, or even well-written, but you read about our lives regardless. Even if no one ever read my posts, I would keep writing to have my own personal "scrapbook" of the highs and lows of our daily lives with the kiddos, but it is nice to know that there are other people who actually care :)

I hope you're 30 days were as full of things about which to be thankful as mine!