Thanksgiving Time

I bought two books for Sid and I to read together this Christmas season. The first one is called "Why the Nativity" by David Jeremiah and it is made up of 25 reasons why we celebrate the birth of Jesus. I'm sorry to disappoint my friends, but we don't celebrate Him for ourselves. We celebrate because Him because he came to save us, to redeem us from ourselves. So I look forward to taking a more in-dept look at the biblical based reasons for Christmas such as why Mary? why Joseph? why the stable? And so forth. The second book is a book of daily devotions specifically for the Christmas season. We have so much going on. Bailey's first birthday. Bailey's first Christmas where she is actually at home and we can celebrate with her. I already feel us getting caught up in the commercial reason for Christmas and as a Mom, now more than ever, I want to start some traditions with my family and one of those would be to remember the real meaning behind Christmas and I want Bailey to grow up knowing it's not all about her and how many presents she can collect under the tree. This year, it's me that needs to remember that because she has no clue if she has one or twenty. I'm the one who is getting out of control for her first Christmas. What I would like to do is determine how much we actually spent on her and then every year after this, make a donation in her honor to some type of charity for a portion of that dollar amount instead of spending all the money on her. She is a well blessed child and I want her to grow up knowing that.

Ok, moving along.....it's almost Thanksgiving and just in case I don't have time to post much next week because I plan to be in Oneonta, I wanted to share this:

December 22, 2008, Bailey's Birthday


December 27, 2008, The vent was gone for good and she finally got a bath and some clothes on!


May, 2009, On the vent after in the PICU after the surgery on her airway.


Oh! Are we ever thankful for this sweet baby and for the blessings she brings to our family every single day!