count your blessings

here's what i'm grateful for this holiday season...
first of all, our power went out (along with two thirds of the entire seattle metropolitan area) due to a major wind storm. it's amazing what this entails. the power goes down every so often and you get out your flashlights for an hour or two, usually it's more like 15 minutes, and then move on with life. not this time. power was gone for days and some people still don't have it turned back on (it's been a week now). i'm telling you, it was apocalyptic. the streets were bare. the grocery stores were bare. everywhere you go, it's all people are talking about. it made national news and my two grandma's called me to check in. it's pretty sad to think of our dependencies on modern conviences. and we had it pretty easy- only about 30 hours without power. our only loss was about $50 of food rotting in the fridge. very minimal compared to those around us. the street just south of us was closed until yesterday, littered with fallen trees and power lines, and crushed cars. and yet, here we are, going about our busy getting ready for CHRISTmas lives. i've entered into a new realm of busyness this year, with my third child and this and that. so much, that i was grateful for the little things to slow me down- the lack of electricity, my daughter getting the flu, babysitting at home, hanging out with friends. taking a moment to step back and realize CHRISTmas isn't all about shopping.