Family week !

Isn't this time of year amazing........no wonder people are always saying that they wish it could be Christmas all year round.

I will always have to remember this very week as family week for me. On Monday, my mother's twin sister called me and we talked for about 45 minutes or so. Mama and Daddy both passed away during those 31 years that I was away and I was out of touch and didn't know. The last time I saw Mama's twin sister was in 1975, on a trip planned to celebrate my graduating from high school. She lived in Michigan (still does) and we lived in Tennessee. It turns out that Aunt Edith flew down to see Mama regularly at the end of Mama's years (she was only 63 when she died of a cancer), and talking to her this past Monday for the first time in all those years almost felt like catching up with Mama again.......oh what blessings my sweet LORD showers on me.
Then, this past Saturday, my brother John and his wife Deb hosted a family get-together for our side of the family. There were 31 members of the family there, with baby girls and bigger boys and girls, married children, sisters-in-law, and all the brothers and me. We got a wonderful family photo shot of the five of us stairstep siblings, all together at the same time for the first Christmas since we were all young. Amazing.........I was moved to tears when I should have been feasting, just looking around and, as John said, thinking, "who could have imagined at this time last year that we'd all be together this Christmas?"
Life is going to get very difficult for awhile around here, but God just keeps reminding me that he loves me and has good days in store again for me and hubby.
I wish you ALL peace, and happy family get-togethers this Christmas......their 'presence' is the best of all 'presents'.