[Tasty]

This year I am truly thankful for my family, and I wil be spending Christmas close to home. I have had a lot of perspective this year, and events which have made me see that not sweating the small stuff is so important in living a full life. I have also had some experiences on a spiritual level that I am so thankful for this year, and needed greatly. I had a son born in July 3 months prematurely. 2lbs. 1oz. upon birth, and just so tiny. My daughter was born at 30 weeks gestation a year prior, and this was not something I wanted to do again. Such a scary experience, and even moreso this time because my son was SO much smaller than my daughter was at birth. We thought we knew the ropes of dealing with premature birth, but at 5 months and counting in the hospital we are learning that each child is unique in their needs and development. I have TRULY been humbled by people's kindness this year toward our young family. I have never experienced the kind of love from other humans as I have this year. Random people telling me they are praying for my son, and know him by name even though I may not know them. Preparing meals, helping with parking money, just whatever. It has been an incredible experience on one hand, and truly draining and beyond stressful on the other hand. We just got another surgery under our belt today to correct some hernias, and it was a success. Hopefully now we can move on to healing our little guy's lungs, and bringing him home where he belongs. This year I am thankful for my family without whom we could NOT have made it through this experience.

Even as rough as it's been for us, I am thankful that things are as good as they are. So many families have babies far worse off than ours, have lost their homes to storms this year, or have lost loved ones.

I hope that ALL of you have a great holiday season, and take time to appreciate the things that you have and are surrounded by those you love.