Are you missing family this week? None of my family – from my brothers and their children to Flyboy and I and our children – are getting together this year.  It’s sad to be just a few days away from Thanksgiving and still be four states away. It’s the third cancelled trip this year and such a disappointment.  We have promised ourselves, however, that we will not let this holiday be a bust.  While it’s just Flyboy, Feather, and me here at home, we will celebrate with much gratitude and FaceTime with the grandkids throughout the holidays to enjoy them virtually, even though we can’t be in Wisconsin right now.  What an amazing time – we can see each other in real time!

Besides the preparation for Thanksgiving, Feather and I will be starting to decorate and bake for Christmas. We found a set of cookie cutters with which we will bake star shaped cookies to be layered together to make a Christmas tree.  Here’s a picture of one in progress. We are pretty excited to give it a try, and plan to share them with our neighbors.

This is a big week coming up, with Thanksgiving on Thursday, and the first Sunday of Advent following right on its heels. I did not grow up in a tradition that celebrated Advent or Lent, but I have come to realize the importance of setting these times aside and focusing on our Savior and our redemption.

Starting one week from today here at Seriously Girl, we’ll begin a walk through the Advent season together, continuing the current twice-a-week posting schedule. We’ll start with the significance of the season, and after that until Christmas, we’ll have devotional thoughts based on meaningful and purposeful Scripture passages relating to the coming of Christ from glory to glory.

No time to feel gloomy!  There is so much to look forward to.  I am praying for you this week. Be well!  Be safe!  Be grateful!

Love,
Gigi

 Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. 
 – Colossians 3:15-17 (The Message)

*Title quote source unknown.
** Video chat photo credit: makeuseof.com