My Blessings Basket

After seeing all the posts online about starting anew, I saw a post with a "blessing jar"
The post was about a couple who wrote down their blessings during the year to review at the end of the year.
They wrote things as simple as
receiving a handwritten note
a call from a friend
a short line at the supermarket

It is amazing
day after day
 we choose to focus on 
What went wrong
Things that could have been better
Things that other people have

This year, my focus will be on my blessings

For this I will be using my blessing basket

Here is the reason I choose the blessing basket

I was babysitting my 10 year old nephew so that my brother and his wife could celebrate his 50th birthday weekend in Atlantic City.  
I invited my mother to spend the weekend with us.  I thought this would be a great opportunity for us to do something together during the Christmas season. (Great Idea)
On Saturday there was an event in West Cape May.  The event was a fund-raiser for a children's charity and they had some activities geared toward children.  
Did my nephew want to make a decoration ?
Did my nephew want to eat the popcorn or pretzels?
Did my nephew want to get his face painted?
No- He wanted to go out to my truck and get his electronic device
Did he want to put the tickets into the baskets for the prizes? 
No!
He wanted to go out to the truck to get his electronic device
He headed out the door. I followed him and ordered him back in.


Since now, we would be forgoing the trip to McDonald's,
I had time to put my tickets in the basket while my mother ate her hot dog and my nephew sulked. I put my tickets in baskets that probably wouldn't have been his choices.
Not how I anticipated our fun filled day 
But, out of this I did glean a few blessings.

I won a nice basket with a sweat shirt and baseball cap
Since I followed through with my threat and we didn't go to McDonald's 
My nephew had a change of heart,especially since the electronics stayed off when we got back to the house.
We rode around and saw festive holiday lights and stopped at Congress Hall to admire the decorations with a parking spot right there as we pulled up.  He enjoyed the activities with his aunt and grandmother which earned him his electronics back later that night.

My prize basket

Becomes my blessings basket