Late Night Thoughts

This was our first year without the oldest three kids home for Christmas, and we didn't like it, not one bit. I try telling myself, that I'm okay with them being gone on other days. But at Christmas, when many people are with their families, I want to be with mine. Even knowing that two of them will come home next week, didn't help. It just wasn't Christmas without them.

I felt sad too, because my parents and three siblings don't get together. It's been 20 years since we were all together.

So while I'm thankful for my kids who are still home, and thankful for friends, good health, and many blessings, I still feel sad.

I read this quote in the novel If I Gained the World by Linda Nichols that sums up how I'm feeling.

p. 176 - "What was it about Christmas that caused such a mix of beauty and pain? Maybe it was the very meaning of the holiday. The baby born to die. Maybe there was no separating the joy from the sorrow. Perhaps it was a mistake to try."

I have much to be thankful for and I am. God has been so good to us. But come next Wednesday when Andrew, Rachel, and Kiah come home, we will have a good time. Or else.