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There was a time when the kitchen was filled with the smells of Christmas cookies, candies, and pastries. That was ten years ago. All of us are trying to eat a little healthier, and a lot of the product would go to waste now, so the girls generally spend a few hours baking a few dozen cookies for friends and family.
As I have mentioned earlier in this marathon, family is a most important part of our Christmas. Family is an important part of life itself. For most people family is a safe place. We get encouragement, counseling, discipline, support, and love from our family. Unfortunately, that is not true for everyone. The one place where all of these things are always available is Jesus Christ. The Gospel of John tells us that as many as receive Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God. It is a humbling thought to realize that God Almighty loved me enough to offer me the gift eternal life and live in His presence forever, but the choice is mine.
Salvation does not come through simply believing the fact that Christ is the Son of God. Christ tells us we must receive His gift. We are required to place our lives in His hands and trust Him to lead and guide our path through this world. We are never promised that the path will be smooth and without difficulty. We are promised that He will be with us every step of the way. Life has four requirements to be sustained, light, air, water, and food. Christ tells us that He is the bread of life (John 6:48), He is the Living Water (John 4:10), He is the Breath of Life (Revelation 11:11) and He is the Light of the World (John 8:12). Everything we need to live the Abundant Life is found is Jesus Christ.
Driller's Place 
I’ve always admired your family. Your closeness and love shines.
Love your video picks as always.
Thank you for joining the Awww Mondays Blog Hop.
Have a fabulous Awww Monday and week, my friend. 🙂
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Thank you for the kind words and the blogger friendshhip for all these years.
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You have such a lovely and loving family. It shines in all the happy family faces! Cheers!
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Christmas brings out the best in everyone and baking is a special even around this house.
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Oh yay! Christmas needs cookies! And I am baking! Cheers!
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Oh, there will be cookies…lots of cookies!
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It’s a wonderful thing to grow up in a close knit, loving family. The closeness of your family shines through all your family photos. Thank you for sharing those, and the music. Alana ramblinwitham
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Every family has it’s own level of closeness. Ours is greater than many and not as close as others. It suits us well.
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There’s so much love in the baked goods your family gives out, i’m sure people can taste that.
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The grandkids have learned to love making treats for friends and family.
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Family is important for all the reasons you explain at Christmas and all year long especially for kids. One of the things I do is tutor reading to kids and the young man I am working with this year is very grounded and knows who he is. Talking to him I find out maybe why. He has a large extended family locally and spends a lot of time with his cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. I can tell he loves it and it gives him a sense of who is and how he fits in. So many of the kids I have worked with over the years don’t have that and are floundering sometimes. Most don’t want for physical things but they don’t know who they are or how they fit in.
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I know one or two kids like that and I am convinced that the village it takes to raise a child is family, immediate and extended.
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