Thanksgiving 2012

This year, Thanksgiving was a little bit different than past years, due to the fact that my grandma died yesterday afternoon.
And I was kind of disappointed (and sad, for obvious reasons) that it had to happen right on Thanksgiving weekend, because this is usually such a happy, fun, thankful time.
But I realized that I do still have a whole lot to be thankful for, even if this year's thanksgiving was a little different.
So I shall make a list. =)
Things I Am Thankful For:

• Friends who entertain me all afternoon long. =) Without them, I would probably just have sat around and dreaded the next few days. And I would have also paid way more attention to the cleaning I was doing. lol. 
• A supportive family. Even though they do cry an awful lot. ;) 
• Friends who cook a wonderful meal and share it with us. Without them... I don't know what we would have ate. But it would not have been nearly as amazing as what they brought us! 
• Beautiful, beautiful, perfect fall days. Today was gorgeous. Perfect temperature, golden sunshine, blue sky, amazing trees. 

• A dog that loves me even though I don't always stop to pet her. Is she not just the prettiest dog? =)

• A grandmother who played an active role in my life, and taught me so many lessons, and always made me feel incredibly special and loved and prayed for. I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to say goodbye to her, and receive her final words of advice and encouragement for me. The things she said to me were true, and were about things that she couldn't have known on her own that I have been thinking about. So I must conclude that God was speaking through her, and I plan on taking what she said seriously.

• Serif PagePlus X6. =) It can provide hours of entertainment! 

• is it not a blessing that I never completely mess up the formatting of my blog posts?? lol. 
• this poor post is so confused. lol. 
• I am thankful that I do not have to depend on myself for strength and joy. because I would not be able to supply it. I read Isaiah 35: 3-10 the other night, and they were exactly what I needed, and totally went along with all the thoughts I have been thinking these past few days. I would love to do a whole big long post about how great this passage is, but I am too tired. lol. So I'm just going to copy and paste it here, and you can read it, and draw your own conclusions and take your own challenges from it. and be encouraged by it. =) 
• Isaiah 35:3-10 
• ³ Strengthen the feeble hands,
      steady the knees that give way;
  ⁴ say to those with fearful hearts,
      “Be strong, do not fear;
  your God will come,
      he will come with vengeance;
  with divine retribution
      he will come to save you.”
  ⁵ Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
      and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
  ⁶ Then will the lame leap like a deer,
      and the mute tongue shout for joy.
  Water will gush forth in the wilderness
      and streams in the desert.
  ⁷ The burning sand will become a pool,
      the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
  In the haunts where jackals once lay,
      grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
  ⁸ And a highway will be there;
      it will be called the Way of Holiness;
      it will be for those who walk on that Way.
  The unclean will not journey on it;
      wicked fools will not go about on it.
  ⁹ No lion will be there,
      nor any ravenous beast;
      they will not be found there.
  But only the redeemed will walk there,
  ¹⁰     and those the Lord has rescued will return.
  They will enter Zion with singing;
      everlasting joy will crown their heads.
  Gladness and joy will overtake them,
      and sorrow and sighing will flee away.