BUSY DECEMBER FAVES

 

Well, only about 2 more weeks until the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior and I'm pausing this morning to share FIVE of my FAVE blessings with other bloggers who all link up at our host's site, Susanne.  Join in with us and share 5 of your blessings from this week. 

Friday 5 December

• WORK PARTY:  Dave's company, LTI recently joined with Janel Group. They had a company-wide Christmas party at their downtown Schenectady office (5th floor, all glass..it's stunning!) last Friday evening. The theme was Adirondacks so of course we knew exactly how to dress. The decor was absolutely amazing.  We had fun, and I was able to chat awhile with his friend and  co-worker John and Debbie (who are now engaged!) as I hadn't seen them since before Covid! We had a blast choosing to be a hunter and a hiker. In fact, my "purse" for the evening was a light day backpack!  For those of you who use the You Version Bible app, Janel Group writes the software for them!  They are Janel's biggest client and one of the Janel brothers is a Christian.  Many of Dave's co-workers are also Christian.  I'm thankful we went to the party.

decch.or at the round tables

• LAST SOULSTEPS HIKE!  Saturday afternoon between 1:15-3:30, me and 3 other brave ladies from the SoulSteps Hiking group (no men signed up!), went hiking on a snowy and somewhat icy trail at this local nature preserve. Although it was only 28 degrees F when we began, by the time we were done with the 2.8 miles we hiked, it was 34.  We all needed our poles and I'm thankful we had them.  This is my tribe. These are the ladies I do life with (minus a couple others that don't do  hikes on snow) and they have become my closest friends. I'm so blessed to have them in my life and I'm thankful we wrapped up the Hiking Season with a good hike. Now we are on break as a group officially until the end of March. 

Perimeter trail
6 December

Maggie, Evelyn, me, Joan 

the Lisha Kill (creek) is partially frozen

• SMALL GROUP PARTY:  Since I am a small group leader with my church, I am expected to offer a social event at some point during the semester. For this fall semester, we voted to have a Xmas party and Yankee Swap!  That happened Tuesday evening which also happened to be my birthday.  Since Dave and I had already celebrated my birthday on Sunday evening, I was ok with the group needing to have the 9th as our party date. We had a lot of good food, games, the yankee swap, and they also surprised me with a "thank you" gift along with a very generous gift card for one of my fave local restaurants.  I'm so thankful everyone had a great time. Just one woman had to miss it due to being called in to work, so there were only 6 of us here but we had such a great time of fellowship.  Three of the women, possibly 4, are going to join again for the Winter semester study I will host every Tuesday evening for 8 weeks.   I'm so thankful I get to lead a group and do life with these lovely ladies. 

l-r:  Jil, Shawna, Maggie, Anita, me
 and Darlene in front center
Shawna, Maggie, Anita, and Jill are also in the hiking group!

A thank you gift from everyone!  
I love this sun catcher that I hung in the dining room
which gets the morning sunshine

My yankee swap gift...we all took turns choosing gift
based on a number we picked from a jar, and then tried to guess
who did the shopping. Shawna ended up with the gift I bought and 
I ended up with this collection of goodies from Maggie. 
It's a make up bag and card and glass with metal straw
and they all were in the pretty tote bag.  I'll use the tote in the summer for the beach!

• CARDS!  Birthday cards and Christmas cards started to come in the mail this week.  The top two rows on the basement/kitchen door are Christmas and my birthday cards are below it. As more Christmas cards come in, the birthday cards will come down. Also, Courtney brought over a small birthday gift for me that she bought at the Christmas Shop in Weston, Vermont.  I was thrilled as I love cardinals and didn't have one for the tree!  I'm thankful for friends and family who keep in touch at birthdays and Christmas. It means a lot!  And it's so much more personal than texting. 

his name is Fred!

• PHONE CALL:  I had a really good phone call with our youngest daughter Claire last evening, and I also got to see her at her job on Wednesday, as I had to drop something off there. She was doing an eye exam on a client when I first got there so I was able to chat with her good friend and manager, Colleen while waiting for Claire. I had brought a Christmas gift for Colleen's little girl who will be in 2 in July and I'm thankful she loved it.  (She said she'll take a pic of N---unwrapping it on Christmas Day).  I'm thankful I live near both daughters and can pop in and see them from time to time as well as talk on the phone. 

Another blessing is that my iphone was only missing for about 20 hours, between 12:30 pm and 9:30 AM Sunday - Monday.  Praise God I found it on the floor of the sanctuary in church!! From now on I will double check that the "find my phone" feature is ON! 

That wraps up the blessings that made me smile from my week. 

HAPPY WEEKEND!!