Thanksgiving, 20, and on to Advent

Hey everybody! Good to be back on the bloggy screen again! I must apologize for my inconsistency with posts, but I have been quite busy in several areas this fall. The last time I posted was in October at when I was going to Illinois for the SAT. [Which went very well by the way; God blessed and our candidate, as well as many other GenJ candidates won! :) It was an altogether pretty encouraging election as far as I'm concerned. As we continued into November, I don't know about the rest of you but we had one of the prettiest Falls I've ever seen. It's been very beautiful and long-lasting around here. You all may know this already, but November-February is one of my all-time favorite parts of the year. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is the holiday we celebrated last Thursday called Thanksgiving. In a day and age where our country as a whole has all but forgotten God's blessing and amazing Providence in and on our nation, it was a privilege to take some time last week with a group of our extended family to gather and focus on the true story of the Pilgrims in the 1600s who's example we follow today with our national  Thanksgiving.

Has anyone ever read George Washington's Thanksgiving proclamation? It's very inspiring and boldly claims the fact that we are a Christian nation. The writings of William Bradford and Mr. [John?] Carver do the same. In the attempt to "secularize" our country today, humanists have launched an all-out assault on our country's yesterdays. If they can write books that neutralize and leave God out of His own story, than the next generation of Americans will grow up at best very befuddled about what really happened. The revisions of history that happen today are complete nonsense of course, but if there's no one who knows the true story, than how will we expose the nonsense for what it really is? Anyways, that's why I love reading the writings of the great men and women of God who's lives make up the glorious fabric of God's work in

America's history.

After Thanksgiving, I had the honor of taking my sisters and cousins out to do some Black Friday shopping with some friends and our N.Y. Uncle and Aunt. Very fun :) The next day [Saturday] was a special day to me as it was my 20th birthday! :) So I had a real good time, and was blessed by the support of my family and friends. Thanks guys!

But with all that other fun stuff last week, yesterday marked the start of a time of year that is incredibly special to me and our family. It's the time during the last days of November, and the first 3 or so weeks of December, that we look forward to, prepare for, and remember the coming of our Savior who was born a little over 2,000 years ago as the final piece of God's plan of redemption that had spanned the whole of world history after the Garden of Eden. It's a time when we re-open and re-look at and rejoice in the glorious, wonderful gift of the first Christmas. It is hard for me to put into words the joy and excitement of this season that has been called 

Advent.

Last year around this time, I did some posts related to this season of Advent, and it is my desire to do the same sort of thing this year. With God's blessing we will all be blessed as we look once again at His plan and sacrifice and heart toward us- His creation that has rejected and sinned against Him, but who He loved enough to come down from Heaven to walk this earth as one of us- though fully God at the same time. It's the story of Christmas.