After spending the holidays in the hospital last year, I cannot tell you how much more I appreciate them this year. We have truly learned to rejoice in the ordinary!  November of 2013 is an absolute blur.  Faith ended up transferring hospitals shortly before Thanksgiving last year so she could have a life-saving surgery.  She became extremely ill extremely fast.  It was, by far, the worst day of my life.  She spent the next month and half recovering and then it was Hello, Happy 2014! Let’s start the year off with another surgery! Oy.  Sometimes I don’t even recognize the couple who went through all that.  Was that us?

Anyway, another story for another time!

Thanksgiving 2014 was much better.  Food for days.  Turkey and mashed potatoes.  Stuffing and corn casserole.  Relish and vegetable trays.  Pumpkin pie smothered in whipped cream.  Oh my yum.   I’m not lying when I say that I brought my leggings along to change into.

There is something very blessed about having your people altogether to eat and share.  Take my advice and never take such a thing for granted.

Not having to shovel our meals down and kiss Becks goodbye as we made our swift exit to the hospital?  Blessed. 

Seeing our baby girl at the dinner table, happily banging Tupperware together?  Blessed.

Becks goofing around with his cousins?  Blessed.

{Yes, those are beer caps they salvaged off the counter.  #boys}

Seeing our family together?  Blessed.  

Returning home with your entire family to put children to sleep in their own beds?  Blessed.  

These may seems silly, inconsequential even.  The very things you do everyday without a second thought.  But, it bears mention that these things are gifts.  They’re not guaranteed.  There is nothing sure about tomorrow.  I don’t mean that in a cynical, glass-half-empty way.  Quite the opposite, actually.

Treasure each opportunity to enjoy really normal moments.  Rejoice in the ordinary.