Gingerbread Houses and Snow!

St. Louis had its first snow on Thanksgiving Day!

O.K. It was .02 inches.

-But it was so pretty falling like delicate strips of paper from the sky and melting as it hit the all-too-warm ground.

I especially enjoyed this because it provided two much-needed things for me and my daughter: a good memory and a new memory.

Six years ago, I celebrated my first Thanksgiving as a mother. After having Scout with me from China for only eight weeks, I prepared for her first Thanksgiving meal. As she and I ran to the grocery store, large snow flakes drifted down from the sky.
It was her FIRST snow and her FIRST Thanksgiving!
I remember both of us laughing as she discovered the feel of the wet drops on her skin.

A good memory.

This Thanksgiving, my family and I put on brave faces and tried not to think of the empty chair at our table where Mom always sat.

We each said our list of thanks and lit a candle after doing so.

Just when sadness started to take over my heart, I looked up and saw the snow. With squeals of delight we rushed outside to catch flakes on our tongues.

Giggles and smiles replaced sadness for that moment.

God knows a good ice breaker (no pun intended) when it is needed. My daughter, who did not remember her first snow at age 3, will now remember this one. A new memory.

The next day we tried our hand at making a traditional Gingerbread House.

Can you guess which one is the picture on the box?

HaHa.

Why is it ours turns out like Nightmare on 34th Street instead of the neat one on the box cover? Our icing oozes; our roof sags; the Gingerbread people look a bit crazed with their Gobstopper-candy eyes.

--But it is a new memory, another one filled with laughter.

As I reflect on the holiday, the Gingerbread box cover reminds me of the world.
The world offers us so much this holiday season. If we only could have that new IPAD or Kinect Game or Nano Pod or XBOX game or cell phone or....
Then joy would be ours.

Like the box cover it looks so perfect. The people with those "toys" look so happy.

-Yet we know the only real lasting peace and joy when facing loss or hardship that inevitably comes is going to be from Jesus.

He is the source of living water.
He is the source of good.
He is my Savior.

May your holiday season be filled with new and good memories of walking and talking with Jesus.