Family Gatherings
One thing I love about Christmas are the family get togethers. One thing I absolutely cherish about life is family. I really don’t know what I would do without my family. There is always something about “going home” that I look forward to EVERY time. Maybe it’s because we can’t see my family as often as we would like. Even though we are a hour and 10 minutes away, it’s far enough where you have to take time to go up to Borculo. And because it’s a little further away, we treasure every time we can go up there. I am blessed to have a place to call “home.” And yes, I have two homes – when I’m up in Borculo, I say I need to go home, and when I am in St. Joe, I say I am “going home.” But I like that. To have two places that I call home is so meaningful to me.
Today Dan and I were up in the Borculo area for two Christmas parties. The first one was the Wisse side (Dan’s mom’s side), at Hagar Park. I sure do love seeing my nieces and nephews on that side :). It was good to just see them all again…laughter is never absent! Then at night we had the Geurink Christmas party. The Geurink side is a side that I feel is so close. We did SO MUCH together growing up because we were farming families. We were relatives and my dad and my uncle (and his parents) ran the farm. It’s a closeness that I hope never diminishes. It was a great time as always!
One thing I thought a lot about on the drive home tonight was that I don’t want to take the way I grew up, for granted. I so appreciate the way my parents raised me. They taught me that life was about faith. Life was about Christ. Life was about serving Him. I appreciate the values they taught me – faith, family, and love. I appreciate what they taught me about possessions and finances. I appreciate that when we go up there, we can just sit on the couch for hours and just be together, talking about anything and everything. Family values are so strong and though we may not have a “family” to pass them on to, we can still display our values to others. I am blessed to have a family that loves us, appreciates us, and prays for us. We are blessed. And now we have a few more get togethers to look forward to, and I guarantee we will be looking forward to each and every one of them!
