Following Myself

Ok, so this is funny--somehow I hit a wrong button and I now follow my own page.  Ha Ha.  I wonder what I'll say next?  
It's two days after Christmas and I had a wonderful time with my family.  The plan for the siblings not to buy each other presents was a good one.  It took a lot of stress off everyone. We could enjoy spending time with each other---and play with the Xbox 360 my nephew got! We were able to focus on why we were celebrating Christmas and not the stuff.
2011 is shaping up to end well, and now I'm looking foreward to what 2012 has to offer. Good things, I'm praying.  I'm still working on my resolution to be more thankful, but I'm also with Sylvia on the being more organized.  That would be awesome!
Happy New Year to All!

Early Resolutions

One of my New Year's resoultions is to be more appreciative of things.  You know, being more grateful for what I have. I thought of it on Thanksgiving--no suprise there--and thought "why should I wait until 2012?  Why not start now?" 
So I got a blank journal off the shelf and started writing five things I'm thankful for each day. I thought surely this would be easy, but it's turned out to be harder than I expected.  Once you get past the big things like a job, family, friends, and health, it's difficult to say what you appreciate. 
I've found myself thinking of all sorts of things:  English murder mysteries, remote controls, Christmas lights and i-phones. When my computer got a virus I was thankful for Geek Squad for fixing it.  I learned how much I appreciate technology when I didn't have it.
The good and bad of it is I look around at all I have and realize how truly blessed I am.  Good because I've been more content with what I have.  Bad because when people say "what do you want for Christmas" I have to answer "Nothing, really.  I don't need anything." It makes it hard to shop because we have so much already it's hard to want to buy more stuff.  As I buy presents I stop and consider "is this something they will want?" or am I buying it just because I think I have to get something for others?
If you think about it, putting Thanksgiving at the beginning of the holiday season is a good thing.  It should put us in the right frame of mind for celebrating Christmas and it's true meaning.