Pretty speechless

First, to catch you up on all the mp3's from Steve's 25 Days of Christmas Music:

12/19 - Mannheim Steamroller - Kling, Glockchen
12/20 - Lester Lanin and his Orchestra - Christmas Night in Harlem. The archives on this page contain the English version of Very Merry Christmas Parade (Disneyland) and a couple versions of "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow."
12/21 - Kevin Mahler - Pirate's Christmas. The archives on this page have a couple Christmas songs from Star Wars. Yes, Star Wars.
12/22 - The Andrews Sisters - Christmas Island
12/23 - Billy Ward & the Dominoes - Christmas in Heaven. The archives on this page has the song "Welcome Christmas" that all the Whos in Whoville sang in the Grinch Who Stole Christmas cartoon.

Speaking of that cartoon, I remember about 6 or 7 years ago when my youngest was not quite two, after our Christmas tree got decorated, Melanie dragged him over to the tree and they swayed back and forth singing "daboo story" (what they thought the Whos were singing).

Went to counseling today and I ended up blurting out that I wished someone could say I was a good mom (because people's silence about it makes me feel like the opposite is true). Although he never actually said those exact words, he did say that he always notices that I'm very empathetic to my kids, and he thought that was truly amazing considering how I was treated when I was little. So that made me feel pretty good.

THEN I was making dinner tonight and I got a call from a fairly new friend from church. I visited her in the hospital a couple times this year because she has lupus. Anyway, she said she wanted to bring something over for me, and it was a present! She gave me a pretty box of gift sample perfumes and some chocolates and a snowman family decoration. I was just speechless. I know I said thank you and Merry Christmas but I didn't gush or cry or anything. My husband said she probably wanted to "give back" since I visited her in the hospital and that I didn't need to feel bad that I didn't get her anything.

Lastly, on Facebook today I put up our family Christmas picture and a friend of mine from high school (who has the same kind of disability I do) commented that she liked it and she also said that my family is blessed to have me for a mom and for a wife. Wow! I love how God knew I really needed to hear that.