Welcome to Friday - 12.19.14

Welcome to Friday!

Good morning!  How are you doing?  I hope that you are doing well and feeling well.  I hope that you have not been sick or having to battle with a cold, or worse the flu.  I know that there are lots of people who are battling colds and dealing with aches, pains, and stuffy noses this week.  My office was hit hard this week with three people going down on back to back days.  In addition two of my team members went down with bad colds this week, one with the flu.  Thankfully God has kept me relatively sniffle and cold free.  Anyway, how about you? How have you been, how did you week go?  How are your loved ones doing?  

Are you excited about Christmas?  Are you ready for the coming celebration, the joy, passion, and grace of the season?  Ava and Emma are really excited for the coming season.  They have a new bedtime book called, "Happy Birthday Jesus!"  It is so upbeat and exciting that they want it read almost every night, and they get excited for the coming party.  What kind of things have you been able to do to remember the reason we celebrate, even in the midst of trips to get gifts and other holiday traditions?  Are you done with shopping yet?  I hope you will have an amazing holiday season, a joyous and merry Christmas, and an amazing kick start to a great and blessed New Year.

So, my weekend was great.  We spent Saturday enjoying family as we celebrated Paige's birthday.  It turned out to be a great party, and even a hot water heater leak couldn't put a damper on it all.  I was so glad that Paige enjoyed herself tremendously.  My brother Vincent made it up and I think that made the day very special.  Vincent and Paige share the same birthday and I think it meant a lot to Paige that he made it up to celebrate.  It probably meant more to me, but I was happy for both of them.  

Ava and Emma enjoyed being up late, eating way too much, and having company over to distract their parents.  Emma seemed to be a non-stop ball of motion.  She moved from place to place, and plate to plate.  At any moment she looked like she would just explode.  I'm sure she is wondering what happened to everything once the reality of a normal day set back in.

Cassarra and Gabbi enjoyed the company of their cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and of course the snacks and desserts.  They seemed to get their teen things going for a while.  And then they listened in on the adult conversations and jokes for much of the rest of the night.  Their snickers and smiles were giveaways that they were eavesdropping a bit.  

Sydney enjoyed helping with the party and being able to stay up late with Paige, and her cousin Vince.  She had her funny moments throughout the party and really enjoyed playing the chubby bunny game and decorating a ginger bread house.  

All of our kids seemed to really enjoy the company and especially the party.  They only complained that some of their cousins didn't spend the night at our house.  I think we probably got to bed somewhere around midnight.  It was really fun.  

I enjoyed the laughs, family, food and all that went with it so much that I forgot that I had to be up early on Sunday.  Trish did a really great job of putting the party together with the help of her party planner, Gabbi.  I think it all turned out well.

The week itself didn't continue the momentum from the weekend.  Or at least the part at work didn't continue with the weekend momentum.  I had a pretty busy and tough week at work.  It featured two straight days of meetings, a brief day of normalcy, and then more meetings.  The meetings are nothing new, but I was surprised and frustrated by a co-worker who seemed bent on being a distraction and nuisance during the meetings.  The meeting antics turned out to be a great opportunity for reminding me to pray and be thankful.  I prayed for patience, calm, and to try to be open minded and under control.  I had a chance to be thankful that the meeting only lasts two days, and only comes around every three weeks.

Aside from the issue at work, most things after work were quiet refreshing.  We had a company party on Tuesday.  It went very well.  Four of the girls went with me to enjoy a nice small celebration of 15 years in business.  This was a great milestone, especially since most people thought we wouldn't last past the first year.  We all received a very nice gym bag and notebook from the company.  I spent some time talking to our CEO, COO and VP.  The CEO was very interesting and took note of one of my suggestions for our sister company in Japan.  We mostly talked about his family, travels, and plans for 2015.  I spent most of my time listening to my co-workers husband tell me about his last mission trip.  He has a huge heart for God and has been on two mission trips this year.  You can hear the excitement in his voice as he describes the shear joy of praising God, worshiping with others, and realizing how blessed he has been all these years..  

Of course, last night was our family dinner night and it was amazing.  The girls fixed dinner and we all had a great time together.  We talked about the end of school, exams, jokes we'd heard, the holiday party, and the school parties coming up on today.  

I am looking forward to this weekend.  I am hoping that we will get to relax a bit as today is the last day of school for two weeks.  Trish and I will be able to take a breather, enjoy some good coffee, sleep in a bit, and have at least a pause in the action.  We still having shopping to do, so we will probably spend some of the weekend going to various stores.  I'll make sure I wear my good shoes.  We have been getting ready more and more for the holidays.  We are doing an Advent devotional series on Sundays, starting to get presents under the tree, and trying to be mindful of the real reason.  We are also trying to remind the girls of the real meaning of Christmas and the true joy of giving.  I know it is going to be a great Christmas, I can just feel it!  

Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful weekend.  All in all I must say the week contains too many blessings to be anything short of another amazing and grace-filled week.  I am so thankful for so many things including:

• friends and family
• completing the week at work
• getting a successful start to my new work duties
• completing the devotional at worship on Sunday
• the male chorus' beautiful songs and voices on Sunday
• resting and sleeping in late this week
• getting approved to take vacation next week
• upcoming vacation from the office
• a new hot water heater at the house 
• the old heater surviving through our birthday party
• the cost of the repair being lower than the initial estimate
• only getting scalded once by the functioning water heater (who knew the other one wasn't really working optimally :) )
• Paige's birthday party
• Celebrating with family and friends during their birthdays
• getting ready for Christmas
• holiday party at work
• Christmas gift exchange today at work
• family night dinner and time well spent with the girls

Well, I hope that today you will find strength, comfort, hope and joy in knowing that God loves you.  May your day and your weekend be blessed. 

Welcome to Friday

May the unending and always extravagant love of the Holy God

bless you and abide with you.  May the sure and certain promises

of the Eternal give you peace and assurance in times of trial.

I wish you love, warmth, compassion, grace and joy to fill your

cup and give you enough to share with those around you.

May God bless, favor, and anoint you, this day, and the days of 

your journey.  

With love (& in triumph),
Cassius