My Christmas Angels

On Monday and Tuesday of this week I was feeling incredibly overwhelmed. I was running out of steam and still had a couple of big events to get through. I guess I became pretty grumpy and out of sorts. I found myself over-reacting to things that normally wouldn't have elicited such a response.

One of the main culprits of my stress was the Christmas party at my house last night that included about forty people from work. It was a progressive dinner and the main course was at my house. I enjoy having people in my home and I am always happy to try to be hospitable when the need arises. However, for some reason, this year it seemed like I had overcommitted myself and I was begining to wonder if I was going to be able to pull it off.

To make a long story short, I was reminded of God's grace and provision when two church members rang my doorbell at noon on Tuesday and declared themselves "the stress-busters" that I needed. They showed up just to help me get things ready for the party. I didn't ask them to come....they just came (one of them ran into me at church and I must have come across as pretty grumpy). Nevertheless, they were a huge blessing to me yesterday. They stayed the whole afternoon and made sure everything was ready. And, I laughed harder than I have in a long time as we swapped some tall tales and shared some funny stories. So, instead of mumbling under my breath the whole afternoon about how stressed I was, I got to spend some time with some sweet people. They came back just before the party started and made another big delivery for me. Simple acts of kindness are a clear reminder to me that God knows what I need, when I need it...and I felt like He sent me two Christmas angels yesterday...

It's the little things that mean the most to me.....and for that I am grateful...


One other thing.....I was really proud of my kids last night. They helped me serve at the party. They each had a job. Nathan filled the glasses with ice. Lexi carried around a big basket of bread to pass out. Braden made sure everyone got butter. All three of them passed out after dinner mints to each guest. They really did well. I was so proud of them because they were doing their very best to "serve" others. I thought I was going to kill them about five minutes before the guests arrived...but, once the doorbell started ringing they rose to the occassion.....yeah for them!!!