All is a gift.
C.S. Lewis writes about everything we experience in life, the joy and the pain and the beauty, being a gift.
A gift from a loving Father.
Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on the gifts in our life, like the gift of family.
This Thanksgiving in Illinois was also a time to receive and enjoy the gift of time together as a family.
Even the pain I feel due to living so far from my family is a gift because that ache in my heart is from a deep love for these people I miss and long to see more. It is a gift to love people like that.
Here is a glimpse of the gifts of Thanksgiving 2012...
The gift of watching the cousins together. 7 this time!
Movies, dance parties, hot tub time...these kids love each other.
The gift of new babies.
Babies bundled up in the cold. Babies with the big cousins.
Even celebrating a completed dossier that will lead to a baby in China.
The gift of watching my children play.
Papa and Mormor have the BEST yard ever!
The gift of generations together.
The gift of memories, and bringing my children to those memories to make their own.
The gift of an outing to a great THE BEST city.
From Zoo Lights at Lincoln Park, to wandering around downtown Wheaton.
From a train ride in the suburbs, to a mini car ride around the house.
From Thankgiving dinner with 20, to the quiet moments between 2 or 3.
Thanksgiving was a time of gratefulness.
All is a gift, truly.
