Very Thankful For...

So I turned out to be right. My previous post did turn out to be my last post as a 25 year-old. As of Thanksgiving Day Nov. 22, 2012 I turned 26 years old. And I had some great birthday celebrations. On Wed. Nov. 21 I was off work so I started out the day with a delicious birthday breakfast with my family at Lincoln Square Pancake House.

Later on that night I had a yummy birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse with some of my good friends and my cousin. I even got the waiters to embarrass me by telling the whole restaurant it was my birthday and everyone in the place yelled, "Yee haw!" to me. Hahaha. It was fun.

On Thanksgiving day aka my birthday Nov. 22, I got off work at 3pm. After work, I went to my aunt's house to eat Thanksgiving dinner and celebrate the holiday and my birthday with my dad's side of the family. Afterwards, I went to my boyfriend's parent's house to eat dessert, celebrate my birthday, and take part in their "Thankful Basket" family tradition.

This is how a thankful basket works. Each day of the two weeks before thanksgiving you write something you are thankful for on a piece of paper. You then fold it up & put it into the basket. Once Thanksgiving arrives, you gather the family together, pass the basket around, and each pick out a note and read it until all the notes have been read. For extra fun, you can also try to guess who wrote what. It helps if you can recognize everyone's hand-writing too haha.

I really enjoyed taking part in the thankful basket tradition with Mark's family and I think it's a great tradition to have. It reminds us of what the holiday season is about: giving thanks to God for the many blessing and lessons He gives us in this life. Right now I'm thankful for so many things that I think I will have to make a list here for you all to read.

What I am very thankful for during this Thanksgiving and Christmas season:

• My salvation & personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
• My wonderful boyfriend Mark who is such a blessing and encouragement to me. :-)
• My wonderful family.
• My wonderful friends from work, church, and every where else in between. Also to my friends who are my family in Christ.
• All the ways God provides for me: financially, with food, with shelter, spiritually, emotionally, physically, etc.
• All the ways He uses me to serve Him through: The Christian singing group I'm in that sings at the nursing home, the Christian artists group who supports, encourages, & provides great fellowship, the small group girls Bible study I'm in who are always there for me, & the many other ways God uses me to encourage & witness to others.
• For my life & being able to serve Him everyday that He blesses me with air to breathe.

I hope you all have a great month of Christmas celebrations. Just remember that "Jesus is the reason for the season." God bless. And remember to keep: being thankful, running, dancing, singing, laughing, and loving others during this holiday season.

What are you thankful for during this Holiday season?