It has been a hectic, stressful past few days for our family.

Instead of slowing down before Christmas, implementing my plans to de-clutter and clean up our little apartment in time for our little family get-together on Christmas Eve (with my parents and my youngest brother), and preparing for our “birthday party” for Jesus on Christmas Day, we found ourselves rushing our little girl to the emergency room due to continuous vomiting, and taking turns caring for her (thank God for my husband and my mom and dad, who helped out in so many ways).

Because my mom and husband were there to care for little Therese, Tim and I were still able to go to the Lighthouse (the office building where all of Bro. Bo Sanchez’s ministries are housed) Christmas party (all four of us were supposed to go), and I was still able to join our department’s presentation. 🙂 My dad also came by and ended up staying overnight, much to the kids’ delight.

Yes, that’s me in the middle with Tim, in between my fellow presenters/singers. (Yes, that’s Martine of Dainty Mom in the long dress, singing with us! 🙂 She’s the managing editor of one of our mags, for tweens.)

The day after though, I found myself with a severe lower backache in the evening — after bringing Therese for her follow-up check up, buying her medicines and cleaning up at home. By that time, she was feeling much better (thank You, Lord!) so her dad had left to attend a reunion with his “guy pals,” and my parents had already gone home.

After putting the kids to bed, I found myself crying in pain. Thank God I fell asleep soon after saying my prayers and asking for healing.

As you can guess, I’m feeling much better now — save for the cold and sore throat that have been bothering me since yesterday, and a slight backache — hence this blog post. Which brings me to the ultimate reason behind it.

As Christmas is only less than 10 hours away, at least in my part of the world, I just want to tell you how grateful I am.

Yes, we live in a world that seems crazy and twisted at times… Where children get gunned down or stabbed by madmen… where natural disasters can wreak havoc on homes and lives…  Even so close to Christmas…

Yet, there is still A LOT to be grateful for… A lot to thank God for…

Of course, it’s a given that I’m thankful for the gift of Christ this Christmas. After all, He is the Reason for the season.

Photo from the

And I am grateful for my family and friends, my new “big boss” and officemates, and brethren in our Catholic community. For , pro-lifers, , and fellow Catholic bloggers from all over the world! And even the strangers who have become my friends in a way, because they are praying for our baby, especially after I posted the truth about my pregnancy.

I’m thankful that God healed Therese quickly, and that He is healing me, too. I was dreading spending Christmas in the hospital, as Therese almost had to be confined to prevent dehydration. I thank God, too, for all the people who prayed with us for her and followed my updates about her progress on and !

A little thinner now, but much better! Thank you to everyone who prayed for her! 🙂

I thank God for the job that He blessed me with this year, one that allows me to homeschool and spread His love to other people, especially to kids! I thank Him for the additional income streams, both passive and active, that He’s blessed our family with. I thank Him for the chance to touch others’ lives through my writing.

I thank Him for our new home, something which we almost gave up on. I thank Him for the surprise of Anthony’s new job, one that allows him to spend more time with our family and bless others through ministry work and special events.

I thank Him for SO MANY BLESSINGS actually.

I thank Him for YOU, dear readers, whom I would like to call my friends as well. Thank you for reading this little ol’ blog of mine, and for keeping in touch with me through , and email. Thank you for reading my articles on Smart Parenting, Philstar.com, World Moms Blog and elsewhere.

Thank you, too, to all , past and present! For believing in me and trusting me as a blogger, even if I am relatively new! For blessing our family, especially our homeschooling, through our partnerships!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for making my blog what it is today, dear readers and partners! You’re part of my “I am grateful to God for…” list! 🙂

From my family to yours, I want to wish you a BLESSED CHRISTMAS and a BOUNTIFUL NEW YEAR! 🙂 May your Christmas — all 12 days of it — be truly merry and bright, with the light of the Christ child and His peace and hope filling your hearts and homes for all the days to come!

To end, here are my Christmas prayers for you:

Photo source here.

Photo source here.

P.S. I plan to take a blogcation so I can focus on spending time with my loved ones. But you’ll probably see me active on Facebook and Twitter! 🙂 Leaving you now with a few photos of how we’ve prepared for our Christmas celebration this evening (the Happy Birthday Jesus decorations will only come up later, when the kids are asleep, so they’ll be surprised tomorrow morning on Christmas Day! 😉

Merry CHRISTmas from Tim and Rysse! 🙂

Waiting for Jesus to be born. 🙂

Our CHRISTmas “corner.” This is the first year we actually bought Christmas trees. And have lots of gifts! 🙂 Thank You, Lord! 🙂

The “centerpiece” of our CHRISTmas decorations is our simple Nativity set. Baby Jesus will only be brought out later at midnight. 🙂

Meanwhile, the Three Kings / Wise Men are still on their way to visit Jesus. 🙂

And the shepherds have yet to receive the angel’s message about the Baby born in the manger.

Our Jesse Tree is almost “full.” 🙂 O Come, O Come Emmanuel!