Family and Friends and Festivities

We celebrated New Year's Eve and New Years's Day with friends.  And family. Celebrating with family is a given~ in my family anyway. We are a close, tight-knit family. We work at that. We work at keeping the lines of communication open.  We work at having fun together.  We work at giving each other space when needed. Love, most of the time, is work. It's not always touchy-feely. It's choosing, at times, most of the time, to put the needs of each other before the needs of self. That's something that is not always easy, but always rewarding. And necessary.And essential for growth of the family unit. Forgivness and being forgiven is a constant too.  We, every one of us, is always on the receiving end of needing forgiveness and extending forgiveness.  Forgiveness is a a gift.  A huge gift. A gift that is never deserved, but always treasured. Just like my family.  I don't deserve the great gift my family is to me, but I treasure my family. Deeply. Very deeply. I treasure and value my husband, my children, my mom, brothers, nieces, nephews, cousins, in-laws...

And my friends....

My friends are a gift from God.  Too often I don't tell them enough how thankful I am for their gift of friendship.  They don't have to be my friends; yet for some reason they have chosen ME to be their friend. Even when they know me, and for some, have known me for many years, they still continue to invest in friendship with ME! !What a gift!  What a reason for celebration! What a treasure!

We celebrated New Year's Eve with family and friends. Our "across the road neighbor" friends. They have become our friends, most likely, because of our close geographic poriximity. We invest time, resources, ideas, and friendship with each other.  We are blessed to have such very good neighbors who are very good friends.

We went to Swift Current last night to celebrate New Year's Day with friends. Friends who I have known for over half my life. We have been to each others weddings, rejoiced over the births of our children together. We've been camping together.  We celebrate birthdays together. My husband became very good friends with them through me. Their friendship is treasured and valued. I'm not sure if I have told them that lately. I think I will do that!

Family, friends, and festivities. I count myself extremely blessed to be gifted with such treasures.

"Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble."  Proverbs 17:17 (the Message edition)