Being thankful never gets old

Are you so over Thanksgiving?  Our table is still festooned with the harvest-colored flowers and the green pumpkin...and the Advent wreath in the middle of it all.

I've never been one who could switch so easily from season to season; I need to ease into things.  I always marvel at those who have all their Christmas decorations, INCLUDING THE TREE, set up by the Friday after Thanksgiving. We usually try to get a tree up by the 15th, maybe even later.

However, Advent almost always follows hard on the heels of Thanksgiving, so I can't stay in land of burnt orange and yellow for too long.  It's becoming time for the red and the dark green, silver and gold.

ANYWAYS...

We had a great time celebrating with my brother and his lady friend, Robin.  Robin is especially great at entertaining Lucy and will play with her for long periods.  A saint, I tell you.  Sadly, I have NO pictures of all of us together!

Today was a hard, hard day of re-entry.  I read on someone's blog that the four day weekend made it easier to face Monday.  Not so for me or my house.  Four days of feasting and playing and going to bed late made this morning full of weeping and gnashing of teeth (not to mention how the kids were acting).  I woke up filled with the dark dread of morning, but found some comfort in these words in Psalm 119:

I wake before dawn [true dat] and cry for help; I hope in your words.  My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise [and that I may make the lunches...with joy]...But you are near, O Lord, and all your commandments are true.

The Lord goes before, He is never asleep and He knows how hard it is to go into the week.  He met me indeed this morning, and meets me even now, in the tasks that come easily and in the tasks that require prayer and fortitude.

So, even if Thanksgiving has come and gone in America, it is always time to give thanks, to cultivate a heart that notices the ways in which we are loved, blessed, seen, heard, held by our Father in heaven.
Giving thanks on this Monday night for:
* sons helping in the kitchen
* foodie son's first pie all by himself!  
* pumpkin spice rolls and the delight they produce in my family!

* pies, pies and more pies
* The Muppets
* just days away from beginning to listen to Christmas music!
* first Sunday in Advent and lighting the candle together
* dear dear friends and all our children together, loving each other
* cooking and cleaning 
* naps under a fuzzy blanket
* encouraging words
* seeing Lucy's birthday joy
* reading Raggedy Anne stories with Lu
* talking to my mom and comparing Thanksgiving cooking notes; she taught me everything I know
* just living, being, enjoying what is now, this very moment