Thankful Thursday

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I lost track of the days and also how many chocolates I consumed. Today is Thursday which is a time to reflect and focus on gratitude – I'd love for you to participate! This week I am thankful for:

1. Seeing Christmas through my kids' eyes. It's not an exciting time for me at this age (regarding gifts I'm of the mindset that if I want something, I'll just buy it) but the reason for the season is special. I really enjoy seeing how excited my kids are about the lights, family time, presents and Jesus' birthday. I think I am also thankful that the advent calendar is over for another year.

2. That Nya loves her extra siblings.  Every time we say "yes" to a child moving into our home we know that automatically means less time allocated to each of our kids and that is hard. Thankfully they are doing well as our newest little sweetheart will be with us for quite some time.

3. Teeth whitening naturally. I had asked on Facebook about whether people whitened their teeth or not. I was very hesitant to do any treatment because I didn't want my teeth to be sensitive AND I didn't want bright white. Bianco Smile reached out and I was able to try their natural charcoal product. It tastes gross and makes your toothbrush black (ha, I'm really selling it!) but it's an affordable and natural way to make your teeth a little whiter. I was not required to post it here but I am because I like finding out about new products. It's 50% off right now but you can use the promo LOUISE20 for an additional 20% off (brings it to $24 USD with free shipping).

4. Being able to visit Gary's parents. Growing up my grandparents lived a lot more than half an hour away. I'm thankful that our kids can spend time with their grandparents whenever we have the time to head on out to Abbotsford.

5. SNOW. Yay for some snow to make it feel like winter!

6. Christmas Eve with my side! Love that it works to do Christmas Eve with mine and then Christmas with Gary's. I've always grown up doing our Christmas celebrations on the 24th so it was a win win.

7. Seeing joy on my kids' faces. Koen is our prankster so a good ole jokebook and hand buzzer made him happy.

8. A relaxing Christmas morning. Well, the boys were running around at 6 AM full of excitement but we stayed in our pj's and enjoyed a delicous breakfast.

Kai spent his own money to buy Nya macarons. He is much more generous than I was at his age.

9. A tunnel. Koen loves all things calming and cuddly so when I saw this tunnel on a swap site I had to buy it. Fortunately he loves it as it's his little escape. I love it because it folds down nice and small.

10. Big cousins! My kids are fortunate to have young cousins on my side and older ones on Gary's! This means they get to be examples for younger cousins and get to look up to the bigger ones–they're a great bunch (two not pictured because they're being all grown up and working/volunteering in other countries and cities).

Hopefully you have plenty to be thankful for this holiday! I'd love to hear one or more things that you are grateful for.

Love,
Louise

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