Christmas Morning

It's Sunday morning. I'm in Saskatoon at my parents' house; updating my blog from my Dad's Ipad. Spent last night at my brother Rob's house - but they're in Gravelbourg. It's a standing joke that whenever I come to visit, they're not home.

Things that I'm thankful for today:
1. The warm weather. We're not having a white Christmas but the highway was clear and dry when I drove up here. I'm thankful for the good weather when there are so many traveling. I remember the Christmas when my kids spent 12 hours in an airplane sitting on the tarmac in Vancouver and didn't make it to Regina until a day late. This year, Rose is in Ottawa and Bram is in YK, but I'm still with family for Christmas.
2. Modern communications. I've already texted to Rose back and forth for Christmas; we talked to Robin last night on Skype; I'm posting to my blog this morning. When I was in New Guinea, for the two years I was there, I talked to my family a total of three times; once for each Christmas, and once when I sent off a really blue letter and they phoned to make sure I was ok. To write a letter and receive a reply usually took a month.
3. Family. I had supper with my parents last night (and breakfast this morning). We'll be having family meals for much of this week - we had one yesterday, one this afternoon, etc.
4. Worship. We'll be going to worship shortly. What a blessing to be able to go and freely worship and praise God for our many blessings.
5. Music. I'm listening to Handel's Messiah right now. What amazing music that is. I'm so happy to be able to participate in creating music, listening to music, experiencing music.