Just call Me Scrooge...

And yes, I love Christmas, but I have one request:

Can't y'all just wait until the day AFTER Thanksgiving?! Grrr...

Christmas trees begin to mysteriously appear in September.
The employees at Hobby Lobby are scurrying about, hanging out ornaments in October.
The snowflakes that decorate the main street in town are winking at me in November.

Grrr...

Anyone ever hear of that obscure holiday called THANKSGIVING?!

And yes, I know that we should keep the Christmas spirit within us all year long. As far as I am concerned, our entire Christmas foundation lies in Christ and I am fully aware that my Scrooge-like attitude does not emulate that picture, but I am stubborn and I believe that the Christmas decorations need not see the light of day until AFTER Thanksgiving.

We are so amazingly blessed in this country. Can't we set aside ONE day to celebrate friends and family and the sacrifices so many have made, and are making, in order for us to enjoy the many freedoms we so often take for granted?

Each and every day I find that I am thankful for SO many things. I made a list once and it is slowly morphing into a scrapbook page. That list makes me smile and every time I glance at it, it makes me happy. It obviously has big things that I am thankful for such as:

1. Christ
2. My amazing husband and children
3. My marriage
4. My friends (old & new)
5. Our health

Then there are the immeasurable little things that add richness to my already blessed life:

6. Living this life at the end of the dirt road (this could be listed in the above
catagory. I have a hard time breathing when I am not on my dirt road.)
7. Books (reading, libraries, bookstores)
8. Photography
9. Rain and the sound of it on a tin roof (after 12 years of drought, I cried
when it rained)
10. Music
11. The smell of horses and the barn
12. Everything about babies, kittens, colts, calves, puppies...baby everything
13. Brown paper packages tied up with string (now I will be singing "A Few
of My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music all day.)
14. Letters and phone calls from friends
15. Candles
16. Reading aloud to the kids under the flannel quilt in the winter
17. Fireplaces
18. Spring and Fall
19. The first snowfall of the season
20. Fresh sheets on the bed
21. The 15 years we spent in the Davis Mountains ~ love those mountains
22. Laughter
23. Walking through the yard, barefoot, in my p.j.s, in the summer, with
a mug of hot tea, before the sun rises and tending to my plants.
24. A scrubbed kitchen and bathroom
25. The twinkle in DH's eye

See, just typing out a bit of that list put a big smile on my face! I am an optimist, a glass-half-full kind of person,

but in regards to the arrival of the Christmas Holidays...

until the day after Thanksgiving...

Ba Humbug!