the Light of the world...

J E S U S ...

He came to us, for us, even in our sin. He came to this lowly place to live as we live, yet without sin, to take our sin upon Himself. He came to save us and give us hope. He is the Giver and the Gift. And the gift of His Love never fades, even when the Christmas lights do. He is the Light of the world always...

(Listened to this song a lot this Christmas season!)

I  hope  you  all  had  a  very

M E R R Y   C H R I S T M A S !

(And here are some photos from last week, when I woke up to a glorious combination of snow, fog and sun...)

a little bit of my Christmas...

Here are a few photos from this Christmas season, that I meant to post earlier... But here I am, sharing them late on Christmas Eve instead... this season always goes by too fast!! 

thoughts | walking in gratitude

|  The verse above is I Thessalonians 5:18  |

I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week! Of course I love Thanksgiving for the great food and family time, but the days leading up to it are my favorite because they remind me to focus on giving thanks everyday, in all things! I love being reminded of the Lord's constant goodness, no matter what other things are consuming my mind... That always brings gratitude and joy!!

I am currently trying to catch-up on the She Reads Truth plan, "In Everything Give Thanks"...
I am a few days late getting into it, but better late than never.

From Day One... I loved this quote, "His will is not as much a path as it is a way of walking." 

It's a beautiful quote and it goes great with the theme of giving thanks in all things, because it is about being thankful along the journey. By choosing to walk in gratitude daily, we find joy! If we walk in His ways daily, we will constantly find things to be thankful for in all of life's circumstances. And  even on the worst days we can know that He is still on our side, fighting for us. That is the one thing that we can ALWAYS count on and be thankful for. He is good, in everything, all the time. I always want to walk though life being thankful and giving Him the glory in all things.

Read the day one devotion...

photography | fall in the mountains, part two

Back in early October, my mom, sister and I went to the mountains to see some of the fall leaves. This is probably one of my favorite autumn traditions, because I don't know if there is anything prettier on this earth than fall in the mountains. After hiking by an old barn and some grazing horses (see part one of this trip here), we decided to make our way to a little lake that we have been to many times before.
I was glad we did, because it looked especially pretty in the fall setting. As we walked around the lake, we decided to go off the trail a bit, so we could be standing right in the middle of a group of bright yellow aspen trees. The feeling of standing in middle of those trees was magical, I really didn't want to leave. I guess these pictures will always remind me of that feeling!

photography| fall in the mountains, part one

Back in early October, my mom, sister and I went to the mountains to see some of the fall leaves. This is probably one of my favorite autumn traditions, because I don't know if there is anything prettier on this earth than fall in the mountains. It was a perfect day for it... the sky was a clear, bright blue and the weather was a little crisp, but warm at the same time. When the sunlight hit those golden aspen leaves it was magical. Plus, there were horses and a rustic old barn in the field!! Me and my camera were quite happy with the beautiful scenery.