Wow!!
2021 is here!! HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!
I'm here to reflect back on the last two weeks and share FIVE of my FAVE blessings that God brought into my life. Things that made the last 2 weeks of December extra special and for which I am most thankful.
Having gratitude for even the simple or small things in our life, helps to lead to inner joy. How about joining in with those of us who do this weekly and then link up over at Susanne's site?
FIVE FAVES
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| The side entrance to our church campus Christmas Eve 2020 |
- CHRISTMAS EVE: service in-person with all traditional Christmas carols and a short sermon by our senior pastor, candles from a candle app on our smartphones due to Covid19. Home to eat homemade Italian bean soup and fresh baked garlic rolls with popcorn and spritz mint cookies during our annual White Christmas musical movie date night. It was heavenly. I'm thankful our church made Christmas Eve services happen.
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| Courtney and Claire Xmas Morning |
- CHRISTMAS DAY! We slept in, had devotions, drank good coffee. gathered in the family room by the tree mid-morning to open stockings, eat breakfast, open gifts, and just talk and laugh. My surprise from Dave was the latest Macbook Air laptop. Wow...what a difference from my 2010 Dell laptop which was so obsolete I could barely blog and the printer we have no longer recognized the system! I was not thinking I'd get the latest laptop from Apple. I figured he'd get a refurbished one for me. I'm thankful for my husband. My daughters didn't get much..in fact, none of us did...but the things we did exchange were meaningful and needed. We had a simple lunch of deli meats and raw veggies and 2 different kinds of hummus. It took a while to set up my Macbook and then we all watched a good movie Courtney had received for Xmas. I'm thankful we had an easy, nice day with just the 4 of us. And the weather was warm! All of our snow had melted!
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| image courtesy of prevention website |
- MORNING YOGA/STRETCHES: As I'm still being seen by my amazing chiropractor Ann-Marie, she devised a good yoga/exercise program for me. It takes about 20 minutes every morning which is why I get up at 5:30 on a work day. But being off all week due to the Christmas holiday break, I've had a more relaxing approach to my day. The sciatic nerve pain is starting to ease up: the fitness ball and yoga moves really do help as does the foam roller (similar to the photo) I do. I use that for a wonderful hip stretch and boy does it work! I'm thankful for good routines....I've also found that walking is good for being pain free. Especially on trails vs hard pavement.
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| dawn over the backyard 30 December |
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| the Ramble trail The Crossings of Colonie 30 December |
- WALKS/NATURE: These past 2 weeks, I have walked outdoors every day except Xmas Eve and Xmas Day. It's been wonderful. Most of my fitness walks have been in my neighborhood. If I walk the entire development, it gives me 1.5 miles. If I cross the main road and go over towards the farm, I can add another mile. But the times I've been most thankful for are the walks I've done in the woods this week: one with my friend Cindy R at a local historic pond preserve (we were in the woods for an hour...we did the entire preserve!) and then a solo one in the south part of town at The Crossings. It was glorious. Cold and windy. I only walked 1 mile. But I was wearing a ski hat, gloves, winter jacket and a new scarf my oldest daughter crocheted as my Xmas gift. I had thick socks on with winter hiking boots. Most of the park was empty. I felt great afterwards and am so thankful for days to get out in nature. One of my 2021 goals is to walk outside every single day. Don't know if I'll be able to do that given some of our northeast winter days, but I sure as heck am going to try. Currently, I average 5 days a week walking outdoors. And usually in the winter, it's only 3 days. I'm slowly working my way up to every day!
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| my life verse |
- SCRIPTURE AND ONLINE STUDIES: I've been doing an online morning devotional called God and Goals with my cousin Trisha and 3 other women. It's been a great study and I love that there's room for chat messages so we can read each other's thoughts. Sometimes during the work week I feel rushed during my morning time so being on vacation has been a real blessing for digger a bit deeper and lingering in the Word. The above Scripture has been my life verse since July 1975 when I. gave my life to Christ. And with this reflective time in the mornings, I've been able to jot down my 2021 goals for the year and think on what my "word of the year" is going to be. That will be for another post later this weekend.
That wraps up the last 2 weeks of 2020!
I hope you all have a blessed first weekend 2021!!
5 comments:
Sounds like a perfect Christmas :) I'm glad you've had a break and been able to work on the yoga etc to help with the sciatica. Happy New Year.
Happy New Year, Faith! Sounds like your holidays were nice and relaxing! A Mac Book Air! Wow, are you finding the learning curve hard? So glad that your sciatica pain is diminishing! You are one disciplined lady getting up at 5:30 to do stretches. I need to make it a goal to get outside for walks on a regular basis. I've been way too much of a couch potato in the last months and I can feel it.
So had you a nice Christmas. That is really a cute picture of your girls.
Your Christmas sounds like just what you needed and wanted. Perfect!
Those hikes are the best, too. I'm glad you are getting out every day in nature.
You are ahead of me on choosing a word or focus for 2021. We are happy to be waving goodbye to 2020. Happy New Year!
What a lovely Christmas day! Funny how it changes when the kids get older--but pleasant in different ways. I'm glad the stretches are helping you. Sounds like you're having a great vacation time.
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