Thankful

I feel like there is so much to be thankful for this week. In light of my "You know it's cold when..." post, I knew I needed to write a follow-up to that one. Yes, it was bitterly cold...and now it's much better, even though it's still in the 40sF. Last weekend, when we took Noah to the village, I had him dressed in 3 layers on the bottom with 6 layers on top. But the main reason I'm thankful is that even though it's been cold, we've had really consistent power. We've been through long power outages in the winter, and it's rough. But this winter, we haven't had a major outage when it's been freezing cold...so for that, I am SO thankful.

This week, we also got a new house helper. She spends about 7 hours/week with us, helping me with whatever I need--cleaning, buying groceries, cooking, and watching Noah. I like her a LOT. So far, she's been awesome. Another praise.

And the most recent thing I'm thankful for showed up yesterday afternoon in the form of a care package. Thank you to all our awesome friends back home who sent us stuff. Noah--as you can tell--had so much fun opening it all. He was saying 谢谢/xie xie (thank you) to you all at the same moment that I was taking this picture. =) We appreciate the presents and LOVED looking at all the Christmas pictures and cards. We're so thankful for you all.