Joy, Unspeakable Joy!

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 🎄45 dozen cookies baked
🎄6 batches of fudge/truffles made
🎄1 batch of caramel popcorn put together
🎄2 young adults delivered from college
🎄Snow every day
🎄A few presents purchased and some to go for our family
🎄Christmas gifts being purchased for a family that was not going to be able to have a Christmas this year due to circumstances
🎄6 packages to get in the mail for extended family
🎄Christmas cards that still need to be written and mailed
🎄Numerous other small and large tasks to be completed
🎄A children's program to get through
🎄A Christmas eve service and bulletin to put together

 Dan, Stephen and Emily are off Christmas shopping this afternoon, Nathan is at work and I should be working on the list above.  However, I've plopped myself down on the couch and am watching A Christmas Story, a holiday favorite.  

 Stephen came home last night and after turning in a couple of assignments that are due by Tuesday will be done with college.  Now comes the hard part of finding a job.  Emily has a new boyfriend and he came for a visit the other day.  He is a nice young man even though I'm not ready for this at all! ;-)

 I'm loving the holidays this year and I'm not sure what's different but it's been such an enjoyable time. There is a song we sing in church called, Joy to the World (Unspeakable Joy), and I'm certainly feeling that.

My heart was full yesterday as Emily and I went out to lunch and shopping together.  There is a family in our church that was not going to have Christmas so we are getting some gifts for them.  I almost broke down and cried when Emily told me that she wanted to get the children something with her own money.  We had such a wonderful time picking out gifts for two little girls.  I was wondering how we were going to manage since money is tight and we were going to not be able to do as much for our own family. But I knew it was the right thing to do. Today a couple of unexpected gifts came in the mail for us so God provided in an unexpected way! And that just added to the joy!

 I'm going to start working on my cards while I watch the movie so at least that'll get done.  In the meantime, I'm going to share the joy!



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