On This Last Day Of The Year

I want to reflect back on the Lord's goodness to us, through good times, and hard times.

We had a daughter married this year in March.

We took two unexpected trips to Florida in June and July

 We were in Florida in July for Tim's stepdad's funeral.

 We took a trip to Knoebel's in June as a family.

 My friend Bonnie and I went to see the Downton Abbey exhibit at Winterthur.

 We freshened up the look of our cottage by taking the shutters down, pressure washing the house, painting the shutters black and rehanging them!  It looks great!

Joseph's brother Tommy died at the end of July.  This was a very hard thing.

The big event in August was the baptism of all four of our daughters!

 September we took a trip to Colonial Williamsburg.

Then took Emma to school in South Carolina.  She's thriving there.

 The beginning of October, we took a day trip up to the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon with my parents.  It was a fun, beautiful day.  The leaves were changing in the Canyon though where this photo was taken, three hours south, there was little change yet.

Glorious Autumn in our own yard, later in October.


Tim's Aunt MaryLou went to be with the Lord in November.

 November was Thanksgiving and the first break for Emma from school.   It was a beautiful day with my parents, Tim's brother's family and a few friends.

The following week I hosted the Ladies Christmas Tea in our home.

We got our tree a week later.  We've celebrated Tim's birthday, Christmas, and now it is New Year's Eve.  We have a Ball we are hosting at church tonight with English Country Dancing.

Tomorrow is Lindsay's birthday, and Friday is our 27th Anniversary.

I am reviewing God's goodness to us, and want to express my thankfulness for His protection last night.  

We were driving home from our friend's home near Reading, Emma was driving the kids in her car and we had Kamryn and Grammy with us.  All of the sudden cars are slamming brakes and swerving, smashing into one another, all because of a deer!  Tim comes to a stop without hitting anyone and we see that Emma has missed the accident too!  The cars in front of us are moving off around the crash and before we can move - Smash!  A young gal rear ended us.

We are all fine.  The police officer told us "This is a real mess.  The car that hit the deer didn't stop.  There was a car a head of us that hit someone but that car wasn't there.  The cars between us and that car all were fine and had moved on.  The gal that hit us really damaged her car.  It was a weird accident.  Tim will call the insurance company today.  We are uncertain of what they will do - there is some damage but it doesn't look too bad.  Tim did notice though the van was pulling to the right last night.  The biggest thing is that this van has 265,000 plus miles on it!  I'm thinking the insurance company may just total it.  

Please pray with us that we will be able to find another vehicle that we can afford.  We don't like to have a car payment.  We are trusting God to provide just what we need.

We kind of chuckled last night as we talked about how many miles just this year we have driven, on the many trips we've taken, and then on the 2nd to the last day of the year - Bam!  We are so thankful that no one was hurt other than the deer - that was a real mess and laying in the road right in front of our van.  

We are sewing this morning and preparing for our Ball tonight!  It's going to be so much fun!

We will be Ringing in the new year with Thankfulness in our hearts.  What about you?  How are you ringing in the New Year?