New Year Faves #1 2015

Well here we are 2 weeks into the winter season, and my part of eastern New York has NO snow!  (well, there is a little left from our early December storm in the woods in town where the sun hasn't hit it).

It's also the new calendar year and with it come some blessings!  I'm sharing FIVE of them and linking up with other writers who like to share their faves from the week.  Thank you to Susanne, our gracious hostess for encouraging us to have a heart of gratitude.

Courtney, with her cousin Hanna
 and dog XoXo (Pronounced CoCo)

• VISIT FROM ENGLAND!  Our niece (Hanna, age 23) was on the East Coast this year for Christmas and popped in last weekend with her mom (Dave's oldest sister).  My sister-in-law Karen and I get along great and it had been 2 years since she was able to get to the east coast.  It was so good to see her!!  And it had been over 5 years since Courtney, our oldest daughter, had seen Hanna!  Hanna goes to  grad school in England so rarely makes it over here to the states.  The last time Hanna was on the east coast, Claire and I were at the beach house on the Cape (3 summers ago) but Courtney was already back on campus and couldn't make it down.  So...it was a little bit of a reunion for the girls. We all went out for dinner last Saturday evening and then we had a blast staying up late, sleeping in, drinking lots of coffee and chatting. I am so thankful we got to spend some time with Hanna and her mom. It is a blessing that my daughters are close with their cousin even though we rarely see her.

• SLEEPING IN!  Yes, this makes my fave list although "sleeping in" for me is usually just until 7:30.  But the extra sleep has been restorative for me.  I've been dealing with an irritating cough for the last 3 weeks and the extra rest has really helped. I'm so thankful I have a husband who knows how to make his own breakfast and start the coffee......

• READING TIME!  Because the schools are all closed this week for the Christmas holiday, I have had time to read. I read 2 books in less than a week!  I purposefully had a leisurely breakfast every day this week and took the time to drink an extra mug of coffee and sit with my novel and Bible.  I have been so thankful for this down time.  My soul really needed it!

• PRODUCTIVE DAY!  Yesterday was a super productive day for me.  We all slept in rather late due to being up to see the new year come in but as soon as I was up, I got busy.  Dave helped me take the tree apart and put it away....I put away all the Christmas decor, took out some special decor I use in the winter, did 3 loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the bedrooms and rearranged our living room. I straightened up the family room and reorganized two closets.   And because of all this, I totally forgot to plan dinner.  SO...Dave surprised us by agreeing that the 4 of us would go to one of our fave family places about 3 miles from our house.  It's inexpensive and on New Year's evening was not busy at all!  I had the butternut squash ravioli which was superb and the chicken/wild rice chowder which I shared with Claire. A yummy dinner for a cold night. 

• SCRIPTURE AND WORD FOR THE YEAR:  All week I had been mulling over a couple of words in my brain for the new year.  One was simplify, one was live, and one was liberty.  And then I read the above Scripture on New Year's Eve morning during my devotional time and God just slammed me with some thoughts about it.  You can read my goals centered around this word by going here. (if you're interested!) IF you decide to click over to that post, and you leave a comment sharing at least one of your new year's goals or resolutions, you will be entered to win a small gift.  Winner will be chosen by random number by the end of next week.

Those are FIVE of my FAVES from the past week.

What are you most looking forward to in this new year?  Do you have some faves from the last week?