Thanksgiving Weekend...

(If you click the barn picture, you can actually see the snow falling)

Thanksgiving Weekend...in New England...Putting up the tree with the snow falling outside, crackling of the fireplace, snow ball fights, Christmas carols, hot chocolate, the bitter chill of outside...

Oh wait...that's not Thanksgiving weekend in New England...that's right here is frosty Mayberry!!!! Sweet gravy is the world all backwards. Family back home celebrated Thanksgiving in about 60 degree weather, while we here in Texas had 34 degrees, bone chilling wind and 2-3 inches of snow!! BRILLIANT!

This weekend has been great. We had our 23 pound turkey and all the sides you have with it and of course pie :). We put up our Christmas tree on Saturday and decorated the house with all the decorations. Santa's Elf made an appearance and is attempting to keep the T.o.T.'s in line. (The elf comes to our house after thanksgiving and "watches" the kids and reports back to Santa up until Christmas.). And today (Sunday), we will all sit around for the first of many viewings of the Christmas classic movie "Elf".

Uno, Dos, Tres and I started a hopeful yearly tradition of playing Monopoly. It's their first time playing it and Uno plays exactly like I did as a kid, railroads and the blue properties (Boardwalk and Park Place - ie: expensive ones). She is also losing like I did every time :). Dos is turning out to be a little Donald Trump, minus the dead raccoon for hair. We started playing on Friday night after the T.o.T.'s went to bed and have continued each night until someone wins and as of right now Dos has about 4500 dollars and hotels on 6 properties while Uno has about 200 bucks and no houses anywhere while Tres and I have about 67 bucks and a couple of mortgaged properties!

Only real bummer of these weekend is Dos has pneumonia. He was coughing and had a fever on Wednesday and went back to the doctor on Friday and spent a good amount of the day going to the doctor, the hospital for x-rays, back to the doctor then finally home. Poor guy has been coughing and having a tough time breathing...but it hasn't stopped him from kicking Uno's, Tres's and my butt in Monopoly!

Unfortunately...I have to go back to work tomorrow. Things at work have been going awful, so I absolutely dread going back. When times at home are as much fun as they have been, it makes it so much harder to go back.

But, as always...God is Good...

Giving of Thanks

I have regressed way too much from posting about the most important thing in my life; Jesus.

By my calculations; in the New American Standard Bible, the word "ThanksGiving" appears 41 times. Mostly in the Psalms, but from the beginning of time (Leviticus 7:12-15) through the end of time (Revelation 7:12), we are instructed to give God all the Thanks.

If our mom's raised us properly, we are very quick with our thank yous. Wal-Mart, McDonalds, co-workers, strangers holding the door for us, stranger NOT holding the door for us (but that would be a very sarcastic thank you). If we can thank these random people for their random acts, how much easier it should be for us to thank our Creator.

• When making a sacrifice, do so with ThanksGiving: Leviticus 7:12
• When looking out into the horizon, looking out into the world God created and the beauty He crafted, do so with ThanksGiving: Psalm 26:7
• When embracing life and the tragedies overcome, do so with ThanksGiving: Psalm 30:1
• When singing out praises to God, do so with ThanksGiving: Psalm 147:7
• When taking comfort in the knowledge that God is in fact in control, do so with ThanksGiving: Isaiah 51:3
• When providing comfort and service to others, do so with ThanksGiving: 2nd Corinthians 9:12
• When praying for yourself and your relationship with Jesus, do so with ThanksGiving: Colossians 4:2
• When praying for others and their relationship with Jesus, do so with ThanksGiving: 1st Timothy 2:1

Let's not lose sight of the fact that Thanksgiving is so much more than the turkey, stuffing, parades and football. Christians came here to be free from religious oppression. On that first thanksgiving, Captain John Woodleaf proclaimed "Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty god" (thank you wikipedia).

I encourage you to take some time and give God all the thanks he so richly deserves. I thank God for my wife, for my children, for the life he has so richly blessed me with, for another day, for His power, for His almighty control over all, for family & friends (current and lost, far and near), for good health, for times of strife which allows me to grow closer to Him, for His listening ear and forgiveness, for the cross, for a perfect resurrection, for the Holy Trinity, for the freedom to Thank Him out loud.

God is Indeed, Good.