My Cup is Full...

C and I are creatures of habit...we have a routine and we like to stick to it, we don't know where the routine comes from...but when we fall into one, we are committed!

We typically do our weekly grocery shopping together after church...I like the company and these days C pushes the shopping cart while I push B in the stroller and pick items off the shelves. Before we start tackling our weekly list, we usually get lunch at the little concession/deli stand at the grocery store (not real healthy, I know!) Today, while we were enjoying our DELIcious lunch, I mentioned to Chad that my cup was full...

Let me explain...

We set this weekend aside to enjoy Christmas at home with each other and friends...we really didn't have any firm plans in place...

On Friday, we had the opportunity to visit some dear friends who just had a baby...it was so fun to hold their little one and try to remember B being that small...he looked like he was ready for college in comparison to our friend's little guy. It was so sweet to hold a newborn this time of year, I was flooded with memories of B's birth and found myself wondering what Mary & Joseph must have felt like holding Jesus in the minutes and days after he was born. Later we enjoyed dinner out with B...the people watching was fantastic...in fact, so much that we ordered desert just to stay at our table a little longer...then we went home and cleaned some drawers and cabinets out in effort to utilize as many square inches of our little house as possible...most people would say that this activity may be like pulling teeth...but it really was fun to discover items that had been lost in the abyss of our accumulated clutter...I found my learners permit card with a photo from when I was 15 (we enjoyed some good laughs)!

On Saturday morning, we woke up, bundled up and headed to the bakery for breakfast. While ordering our sweets, we discovered a doughnut shaped ornament and decided to purchase it to commemorate our Saturday breakfast tradition...(we can now say that we have a chocolate frosted doughnut hanging from a branch on our tree). We enjoyed our sweets and coffee and then headed to help C's cousin take their Christmas card photos. After lunch, B and C watched football while I wrapped Christmas gifts. Later we met some friends from our Bible study to go shopping for some precious kids in need and then enjoyed a fantastic meal and finished the evening by enjoying some cider & cocoa while wrapping the gifts we had all purchased.

Then this morning, C woke up early and got B's breakfast ready. He proceeded to get B up, feed, bathe and dress him all on his own (it was a treat)! Then we headed to church. We decided to bring B with us to "Big Church" to enjoy the Christmas concert that our church has each year to kick off the Advent season. We were able to sit in the first row of the balcony so B was able to see what was going on without much distraction...he loved it! He sat still on my lap for almost a half our, wide eyed, impressed and not wiggly. At this point, my cup was overflowing, I can't describe the feeling I had in my heart of being at church, listening to some of my favorite Christmas music, sitting next to C and watching B be completely mesmerized! We later enjoyed a truly thought provoking lesson in Sunday school about Old Testament prophecy & Christ's birth. Since this morning, B has enjoyed a nap, we have taken our Christmas card photos with some dear friends and now C is watching football while I bake some cookies (with Christmas music playing and the Christmas lights on our tree glowing).

I am by no means trying to romanticize our life or paint our family time as perfect...we are far from that! On Friday, we didn't have much planned for the weekend, we just wanted to enjoy being at home and being together and were pleasantly surprised with how the weekend turned out. I am so humbled to sit back and think about our weekend and all the little blessings we were able to enjoy. It makes me wonder how many little blessing fly in and out of each week that I don't see or am not able to enjoy because I let them slip by. As Christmas quickly approaches, and as life flies by...I hope to be able to savor and relish in the little blessings & gifts that the Lord sends our way! My cup is truly full...nothing exceptional or out of the ordinary has happened...but when I really do examine life, my cup is full...I am so thankful for the small things, for the challenges...for everything!

Merry Christmas!