...all is calm...

People keep asking me
"Well, do you have all your Christmas gifts bought?"
and I say,
"actually ------we don't buy presents in our family."

Shock then registers on their face,
and I know they are trying to figure out
if I am totally pulling their leg
or
maybe we got ourselves mixed up with some
crazy cult!
For goodness sakes!

"What do you mean? You don't buy presents?"

THEN --- I explain ---
Five years ago our family decided that we were NOT going to
exchange gifts that year.

With three children in various stages of marriage,
jobs and college
and we ourselves feeling the money crunch,
it seemed like a good thing.
At least it would be a temporary-just-this-year
kind of thing.

We would all just "take a little break"
and resume as normal the next year.

Of course, what happened was ----
WE ALL LOVED IT !!!
And the next year decided --
just one more year.

Really. and truly.
Christmas that year was so low-key.
I didn't scramble around with a knot in the pit
of my stomach,
preparing for that one day.

None of us had to worry about trying to buy
something for someone (that they didn't need
nor want)

something that fits.
something that wows.
something that is just right wonderful.

None of that!

All we had to do -----was
decide what we were going to cook
and
what kinds of new traditions
we could start.

Then --- enjoy just being together.

We discovered what fun it was to do just that.
With no pressures of presents.
(Of course, we buy a couple of presents for Lily Kate
and all the future grands.
What kind of crazy, heartless barbarians did you think we were???
:)

We've also started looking for other ways to spend
money we would be spending on gifts.

Did you know, for instance,
that through
Samaritan's Purse
or
World Vision
you can literally purchase a flock of chickens,
a herd of milk goats,
a pond of fish,
a milk cow
or
dig part or all of a water well
for a needy family somewhere in the world?

How cool is that?!?!

Now --I don't, for one moment, think everyone should follow our lead
on this new "tradition".

This, after all, is what we believe
was needed in our family
in order to bring us back to the true
Reason for the Season.

It was such a shock to realize that we could say
"no thank you"
to all the gift buying and hubbub.

Who knows?
Next year may be the year we go back to gifts.

But for right now,
at our house --

"all is calm"

and we are looking forward to a
wonderful time with the family.

Whatever this week brings your way,
I hope you totally enjoy every single moment of it
and I pray you are
blessed beyond measure.

Gwynie Pie

...all around the house.....

What a very busy time of the year!
It just seems like the days are whipping past...
way too fast.

I'm busy, just as many of you are with....
finishing with the decorating
(and since Christmas is in less than ONE week,
I need to either do it or forget it),
cleaning the house,
planning the menus.

I have only about 10 chapters of Ezekiel
and the book of Daniel
left to read and I will have
completed my goal of reading through the Bible this year.

Tomorrow through Friday
I think I'll skip over to the N.T.
and read the book of Luke prior to
Christmas.
I love the "Christmas Story"!

I have really enjoyed reading through the entire Bible in a year.
It has given some daily direction to my life....
both discipline, to just do it daily...
and
actual counsel
and guidance to my daily life.

I am way excited about some goals I am setting for 2011.
Can you believe it's the year Two Thousand and Eleven ???
That's just amazing to me!

I want to read through the Bible again in 2011,
just with a different version.

Also, at the urging of our kids, we bought
a book called....
"Operation World".

This book directs you in praying for the world--
country by country
so that over the course of one year
you end up praying for every single country
around the world!
Check it out on Amazon if you're interested.

So - praying for every country during 2011 is
another of my goals.

My husband and I would very much love to go to Guatemala
on a mission trip in September.

Honestly, that is going to require me to "get serious"!!!
about improving my physical condition.
I look in the mirror sometimes and wonder
"who is that woman?",
feeling so far from the energetic and much thinner and
in shape woman I used to be.

If you are lead to do so ----please pray for me,
as I embark on a more disciplined eating plan
and try to throw some physical exercise in there too.

It's not an easy thing to "find yourself", ya know?
or at least find who you know God intends you to become.

I find I'm waaaaay excited about the coming Christmas weekend.

I am looking forward --
to a shorter work week.

I am looking forward--
to Christmas Eve candlelight service on Friday night.

I am looking forward--
to spending some "quiet time" in front of the fireplace,
listening to some good Christmas music.

I am looking forward--
to watching
Elf,
It's a Wonderful Life,
Christmas Story,
Home Alone,
White Christmas
Christmas Vacation
:)

But...............
Most of all -----
I am looking forward--
to this week of anticipating
the celebration of the birth of The Savior.

I was reminded today at church ----

as we celebrate the birth of The Savior,
let's not forget that the reason He was born,
the reason He came to earth at all.....
was to save....us!

The King of Kings
came to earth as a baby in order
to die on a cross 33 years later....
for me.
and you.
To pay a debt we could never pay.

Because He loves us so!

Amazing love!

May your week be filled with excited
"looking forwards".

Gwynie Pie

Thankful

November 1 -- I decided to accept a challenge
extended by my blog friend, Jennifer
at Smelling Coffee
(click on her blog over <----- there).
Jennifer loves her family and the Lord
and she always has an encouraging word.
I know you will love her.
It was her November 1 post that so
captured my attention.

Embracing the challenge,
I started a brand new journal with the intent
of writing down at least one
thing for which I was thankful
each day.

Here's what happened:

while looking for things to be thankful about,
I started to really see the many, many
previously overlooked, yet wonderful things
in my life.

I actually started seeing the smallest little things
that previously I would have blown right past.
But I started stopping to really look at my world
around me.

A deliberate and purposeful search for things
I am grateful for has truly opened my eyes
and it also has changed my prayers.

I've gone from
"thank you for the food I eat"
to really looking at the food I eat----
the color,
the texture,
the enjoyment of
it

~~~ a crunchy taco supreme and a big ol' DP
at Taco Bell
~~~or just the beautiful color and uniqueness
of a single perfect Clementine for lunch one day.

I have loved keeping this journal and don't plan to give it up.

In reading back over the past month of entries

(I wrote down #148 this morning).


I remember.

#17 ~~~ a perfect cotton harvest

#131 ~~~the BEST Thanksgiving EVER !

#65~~~ a warm and cozy place to call home

#54~~~ a pink and blue fluffy sunrise,
made just for me --
just
to make me smile
because it reminds me, at this early hour of this cool-ish Fall morning
that I am going to be "Pie" to another
little grandbaby
sometime in early June.
Yeaaaaaa!!!

Cool, huh?

Soooo - I've gone from
"Thank you Lord for the abundance of my life."
to
"Thank you Lord for this.....THIS blessing...
right here....right now."

In counting my many blessings I've been humming that
old hymn we used to sing all the time
but I haven't heard it in years
~~~

"Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your blessings, see what God has done;
Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your many blessings,
see what God has done."

Try it!
I bet you'll like it.


Gwynie Pie