As part of our Thanksgiving festivities yesterday (we feasted a day early this year), we stuck post-it notes, one for each letter of the alphabet, down our stairway, and everyone in the family noted what they were thankful for, A to Z. (We like A to Z around here! Annual Christmas letter coming soon!)
The "rules" were that you had to REALLY be thankful for it, not just write a word because it had the right letter. Then at dinner, we passed around the letters and read them out loud. There were a few
questionable items (Underdog? The University of Washington football coach?), but we'll let them stay...
Here's the final results:
Ashley, animals, art,
accordions, aunts, apples, air conditioning.
Babies, blessings, benefits, bananas, band-aids, Bible, blankets, baseball, Ben, Bob, bed, books, brothers, beds, boots.
Coffee, church, cake, cats, curry, chocolate, cousins, cute babies, carpet, clothes, Converse sneakers.
Dark chocolate, Dad, Dillon, dolls, dresses, doctors.
Eternity, educators, earth, elders, eggs, ears.
Faithfulness, freedom, friends, food, family, fall, fun, forgiveness,
Floyds.
Grace, God, games, girls, grandparents.
Husband, Harper, home, hotels, hugs, heat, health,
Hollidays, hope.
Ice cream, information,
icees,
Ichiro.
James (Jamie,
Jimmigan), a job, juice, Jesus.
Keilah, kindness,
kisses, kites, kit-
kats.
Lydia, light, love, laughter, light bulbs, Life Is Good shirt, lattes.
Mercy, Mom, medicine, missionaries, marriage, morning, mashed potatoes, music.
Names, naps, night, Nanny, Nancy Drew computer games, Nintendo
DS, Nebraska football, nighttime, Nebraska.
Ocean,
oceanside living, outside, oranges, onion roll ups.
Peace, pie, people, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, parents, pens, pencils, Pastors.
Quiet, questions,
quesadillas, Quick-Trip.
Relatives, a room, rain,
rainboots, rice, rain forests.
Susannah, Sarah, Simply Limeade, spring, safe travel, siblings, sun, sewing stuff, sisters, Steve
Sarkishian, S-girls, summer.
Tom,
tylenol, tissues, turkey, trains,
tv, teachers.
Underwear, Underdog, uncles, undersea animals, umbrellas.
Vaseline, Valentines Day,
vacuum, volleyball.
Water, waffles, watermelon, Warriors, winter.
eXpressways, X-Games, X-rays.
Yummy food, youth, yellow, yams.
Zeal!
Zotz, zoo, zebras,
ZacAttack.
But mostly, we echo the song of Psalm 100, as we give thanks to the Lord for all of His blessings to us:
Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations. Happy Thanksgiving to your home, too.
“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.” 
Tasty lunch with family and friends. 
We had an amazing behind-the-scenes tour of the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque last week.
First stop was to meet Rozie and 4 month old baby Daizy. Precious!
The kids fed the giraffes.
We brushed the rhinos. Amazing! Their skin is truly like leather. Thick! And yet, when you scratch them behind the ear, they will lift a leg, just like my dog does when you scratch behind his ear.
We visited the crocs, too.
A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes ... and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.
Well, we don't really need a snow day around here! But even those of you digging out and thawing out will have fun "cutting" out these snowflakes. 
'Behold, days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 
Look! 
As part of our Thanksgiving festivities yesterday (we feasted a day early this year), we stuck post-it notes, one for each letter of the alphabet, down our stairway, and everyone in the family noted what they were thankful for, A to Z. (We like A to Z around here! Annual Christmas letter coming soon!)
There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it. The road climbs seven miles into them, to Carisbrooke; and from there, if there is no mist, you look down on one of the fairest valleys of Africa. About you there is grass and bracken and you may hear the forlorn crying of the titihoya, one of the birds of the veld. Below you is the valley of the Umzimkulu, on its journey from the Drackensberg to the sea; and beyond and behind the river, great hill after great hill; and beyond and behind them, the mountains of Ingeli and East Griqualand.
70 pies in one afternoon!
