tis the season...

.....to think about all the blessings in our lives. the fun thing is the my mom's maiden name is Blessing, which i've always thought was a really cool name. this is our official USAF photo from 1972. aren't we adorable? mom and dad are both gone and i miss them greatly. dad was, obviously, a military dad and we didn't see much of him. he had a love of history and shared his love of this country with us. i've seen more historical markers than probably 90% of the country. it became a family joke, but i think we all appreciate the time he took to teach us.

mom was stronger than she knew and stood in the gap while dad was overseas. she was the glue that held us together and we knew better than to cross her. she was super smart and her sense of humor demonstrated that intelligence.

those handsome guys next to me are the brothers. they live fairly close, but we don't see each other as often as we should. we all hate it, but jobs and kids' activities make it difficult. we always have a blast when we do manage to be in the same place at the same time.

because we were air force, we moved often. Dad always took extra leave so we could sneak in a vacation with the move (hence all the historical markers). those trips were so much fun and are the things that we talk and laugh over whenever we're together.

this is one of those relocating vacations. we're at Gettysburg and both of the cars in the front are ours. I think this was the move from New Jersey to North Dakota. That's us on the steps of the monument and there are better pictures of us, but the cars in front made me smile.

i love that it's raining and no one else is there. I so remember that day. We walked all over the place and Dad recounted different battles and their significance. I don't remember the weather being icky....funny how that works.

so the blessings i count today are a family who knew the importance of spending time together and the memories that we share.