Scrapping Bug and Christmas Blessings...

I am loving being bitten by the scrapping bug again.  Thanks ladies, for all the awesome suggestions for challenges to do; there are so many awesome ones to choose from!  In the end, I chose sketch #61 at Sketchabilities.  I love the way my LO turned out.  Will share soon.  *** Leah Cameron***, please email me your postal addy, and I will pop a lil something in the mail for you as a thank you for the suggestion!!
I've also done the sketch challenge at Scrap365!  Will share that soon too!

Onto a completely different track now.....

I'm really not feeling in the mood for Christmas this year... 2011 has not been particularly kind to my family and I of late, and none of us are feeling very festive.  Suffice to say, being a single mum of four kids, including infant twins, is a tricky gig.  I feel like for the most part I have things under control, though, thank goodness, and I have an amazing support network and friends and my family close by.

Last week, I was having a particularly bad week emotionally, for various reasons, and to top it off, I received a MASSIVE power bill for the quarter in the mail.  I was really feeling like there was no way I could do this last week, especially the impending weekend, which was quite emotional and draining.

Anyhoo, over the last couple of days, I have had a few Christmas blessings fall upon me, and I am SOOOOO INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL AND HUMBLED by them.  I received a hamper of food for Christmas from some lovely ladies I know through church, who volunteer at our local St Vinnies.  Then, two very AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL friends and their parents blessed me with an absolutely INCREDIBLE Christmas gift that will help to take care of that awful power bill, and then some!  AND, a man from my neighbourhood knocked on the door yesterday morning, to tell me that he had a little something from St Vinnies again, that they have been working on for my children and asked if he could drop it off soon.  He's bringing it around this week sometime, and said I will be just as excited as the children!

So, the lesson I have learnt this week, is that no matter how hard things are, or how hopeless you may feel at times, there are blessings to be found.  I have been SO blessed by all these people, and I don't think they know how much it all means to me.  There just aren't words to thank them enough!

Here's a little 'project' for you:  think over your lives at the moment, and count the blessings you have.  Have you received some special Christmas blessings this season?  Or blessings of any kind?  Feel free to share - I'd love to know the ways you've all been blessed.

Bless you all!!

Thanks for looking. Warmest wishes, Catie xo