7 more to go...

Day 7 is coming from me.... after my sweet sweet husbands post yesterday, i had to post today. :) I still need post for the next six days and although I LOVE that everyone is reading and I have heard some awesome comments of feedback about our stories..i NEED MORE! We have 6 days left so I need 6 more stories, so if you have one...please share it...as entertaining as I may present myself to be..Im not 6 stories worth of entertaining. :) heheheh so please send your stories in to me at melissa@melissapepin.com so we can get all warm and fuzzy (or have our eyes opened) by what you have to say. :)

DAY 7
by me... :)

There is really so much I love about Christmas time. As soon as Halloween is over I start getting the itch and the minute I swallow my last bite of turkey on thanksgiving, Im out the door for the wonderful shopping frenzy the next morning ...preparing to get into the Christmas spirit with all 800 million other people that help feed the black Friday plague. This time of year has a way of making me feel really safe...but really alone at the same time. I feel really homey...but distant too...its the weirdest thing in the world, but I find myself on Christmas night every year shedding tears because this wonderful happy, exciting time is over (they call that the post holiday blues people...and I get em..bad!) I have to say that my story is a compilation of a few. Any of you that know me know that I am long winded...but Im condensing it down into 3 little things. Three elements, the outreaching part...the lovey dovey part...and the contentment part. I remember the Christmas season when I was 17. I didnt have very much money in my piddly checking account, and it was right before Christmas and I desperately needed a new pair of shoes for school. I went to payless and was standing in line to check out my 14.99 paid of black flats, when a lady a few people ahead of me in line started crying at the checkout counter. She said that they had had a family emergency this Christmas and she had to return gifts this year to pay for whatever the emergency was. She was only returning two small change purses that came to about $6.00 all together and she took her money and left to go the the next store to return stuff. I can tell you now I have felt the tug of the Lord several times in me life, but this time His tug was especially strong. I grabbed the changes purses, told the clerk to hold my wallet as collateral, and ran next door the the store and gave the ladies her change purses back. They were for her grand daughters and I knew that she must feel awful for not being able to get them gifts for Christmas so I wanted her to have them. I told her I didnt have money or anything big to help comfort her or her family, but I would really like to pray with her. She cried and said yes and right in the middle of a Kmart entry way, we held hands and prayed. It was a short prayer but nonetheless, I knew God had given me that opportunity to intercede for that woman and her family and it was incredible. I dont know what happened to the family, I dont even know what the emergency was...but I do know that God showed me what Christmas was about that day and I havent forgotten it...ever.
Next is the holiday season that Anthony and I got engaged, it was the sweetest time of my life and I knew that God had brought me something that was rediculously beyond anything I ever deserved in a husband.He asked me to marry him right before Thanksgiving(of 04) and we spent Christmas eve at my house with me, him, and my mom sleeping on the floor falling asleep to the Christmas story in the living room of my apartment. We laughed and laughed because we all slept in the floor..I mean..thats cool right..yea..if your 5!!!!!!! But it was a super great Christmas and has been one I wont forget...
Lastly, things to come...contentment. Its something I have had a hard time finding but Im starting to understand more. This year alone things have been crazy, and I have so many ideas and plans for my growing business for next year that I cant wait to see how everything unravels...but for now Im so excited about being content. Content in where I am...and in who I am. This year will be the first year in our house...the first year really getting settled...and its really good. Its finally home and that is perfect to me. So, Merry Christmas everyone....and I pray that God shows himself to you in a new way this season that you haven't seen before... :)

because a post with no pictures can be dull at times..here are a few from when we got engaged. :) I'll be posting more pictures of our home at Christmas time soon!