Thursday, November 22, 2007

Nov. 23 (Gratitude)

Thanksgiving is right in the midst of my favorite time of year. When I was a little girl, my birthday was the big kick-off of the holiday season for my family. In my child-mind, we celebrated from Oct. 30 right through Jan 1st. One special holiday after another. When H and I married 6 years ago, the season of celebration began on Oct. 13. Two years ago when M was born, we backed it up yet another day. Oct. 12 is now the official kick-off of our holiday season.

Once we begin celebrating, the feeling just gets in my blood! I'm so excited about the holidays this year, despite definitely feeling the time crunch about finishing all my home-made gifts for the year. I can't post about them because some of my family reads this blog, but I'll post pictures and responses after the gifts are given.

On another note, I saw a sweet sign at a local church. It says, "Real Thanksgiving is ThanksLiving." That rings so true for me.

Here are 15 things I'm thankful for:
1.) My husband.
2.) My sweet girl.
3.) My awesome parents.
4.) My brothers.
5.) My sister-in-law.
6.) Having a family that helps take care of M so I can enjoy a day filled with the joyous laughter of my toddler, plenty of time to help prepare our feast, time for knitting, and time for visiting.
7.) Being ABLE to create things for my family for Christmas.
8.) Onion Torte and HOMEMADE pumpkin pie
9.) My mom's amazing sweet potato recipe that was prepared by my SIL.
10.) Being old enough to help contribute to the family feast. Today was so great because my mom didn't spend all day slaving in the kitchen. Each child (and their families) contributed to the family dinner.
11.) Laughing until my cheeks are wet.
12.) Big hugs and kisses.
13.) Wii--and listening to it all day instead of roaring football fans over the television!
14.) The relationship between H and my brothers. H is 8 years older than I am and my brothers are both younger, so there is a fairly big age gap between them. However, they love each other very much and have a great time together.
15.) Full tummies at the end of a great day.

I hope you had millions of reasons to be thankful today. I realize it's not the time for resolutions, but I am going to adopt the philosophy of ThanksLiving.

Here's to many moments of ThanksLiving in your life and in mine.

4 comments:

Colleen @AMadisonMom said...

So very much to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kyla said...

Sounds GREAT! And #11 is one of my favorite things in the world. Laughing until we cry is just so powerful...taking the action synonymous with sadness and using it for extreme joy instead. Beautiful.

Christina said...

Happy thanksgiving, my friend! So much to be thankful for!
We have an early kikc-off to the holiday season, too - hubby birthday on Nov 14, Nadia's on Nov 22, and mine Dec 6th! Whee!

Arizaphale said...

A great list. Happy Thanksgiving.