A Very Blessed Christmas!

I want to share my blessing of having my family together for Christmas this year with you.  Because I feel very blessed and lucky to have them all here this year.  Each year as I get older and look back on Christmases in the past, I realize how I didn't take the time to thank God for every Christmas I got to spend with both my parents, my sisters, brother, and  now my husband and children and grandchildren.  As a child, teenager and young adult you tend to take those things for granted. But this year I've realized you should never take family for granted, or friends for that matter!  Friends and family move apart because of jobs or whatever, so it means even more when they are able to get together as special times of the year to see each other and be together.
  This year I am especially looking forward to just being together. The presents don't matter, neither does the food, although it will be so warm here in Southeast Missouri that we'll be grilling calzones for our Christmas Eve dinner with our kids!!  But the whole point is we get to be together.   This year I've realized just how very blessed and lucky I am to have them all here. 
  So thank you God, for the blessing of my family.  I pray that all of you may have the blessings of family surrounding you this year, even if someone is missing, far away or unable to join you, remember the past when they were with you or the future when we will ALL be reunited in heaven for a forever Christmas.  No more tears, sorrow or distance. We'll all be within arms reach of each other in the sight and beauty and glory of our Lord.  We'll never know sorrow or tears again.  Each time I miss my loved ones who are already enjoying that vision of the Lord, I try to remember that someday I'll be there too joining them in singing God's praise!
  God bless you this Christmas and always. Treat each other with patience and kindness, love and compassion. Put away the disagreements, differences and tension and drink in each other's warm hug and smiles and know God loves all of us no matter what.  We just have to love Him and everyone else back!
Peace...