It's Been Awhile...

...We've had a great few weeks getting into the holiday spirit. We were able to much of our family over the Thanksgiving weekend, so that was something to be thankful for. Despite our best efforts, there were some that we missed and we feel badly about that, but we did the best we could.

I don't know if I'm getting more sentimental because I'm getting older (my cousin Melissa too quickly agreed about the me getting older part, by the way) or what. But this year I've really taken a look at all the things I'm thankful for. Of course, the usual things like family, friends,food, shelter, warm clothing, etc. crossed my mind immediately.

But it goes deeper than that. I am thankful for a job. I heard a statistic on the radio the other day that the unemployment rate has gone up again, and another radio blurb today about the economy possibly taking a downturn, with Minnesota being hardest hit. Not only am I thankful for a job with salary and benefits, but I'm also grateful that it's a job that I love, with people who appreciate me, people who are passionate for what they do and have a great work hard, play hard attitutde. I'm grateful that Greg's is the same way. I'm grateful that my layoff this year went so smoothly. So few people have that blessing. And so I am thankful.

I am thankful that for another Thanksgiving with my grandma. I always knew my grandma was tough. She was the second youngest in a family with four brothers. She played basketball in high school in the 40's, went to college in the early 50's, and raised two daughters on her own after in the 60's. She taught school and drove a tractor on their acreage. But this year, she topped all that by both beating lung cancer and healing completely after a hip replacement. I am thankful for that. I know there were a lot of days that were hard on her this year. But I am grateful for every one of those days, if it means more holidays, and more special times like this weekend with her.

I am grateful for family. They are so loving and so supportive of us. They are fun to be around and inspire me to be better in so many ways. We spent a lot of quality time over Thanksgiving with my family baking cookies, getting family portraits done, attending a wedding reception, enjoying a wonderful meal on Thanksgiving. For that I am grateful. We also got to spend quality time with Greg's family, playing pool, eating good food, laughing, catching up, and enjoying the antics of our nephew.

There are so many other things for which I am thankful, a loving and supportive family, amazing friends you can truly count on, our snuggly furbabies, our belongings (both necessities and luxuries). But most of all I'm grateful for the chance to reflect on these blessings....to slow down and really take it all in. Before my wedding a friend told me that best piece of advice she got for her wedding was "to slow down and really take it all in...make mental notes of the people you saw, the things that were said, how things felt and smelled and tasted because the day goes so fast." That really was good advice for our wedding day, but it also is good advice for every day life. And that's just what I did this Thanksgiving.

And to end this post with a little humor...at my grandma's Thanksgiving dinner, which is usually a little more formal (i.e.we eat in the dining room on her nice china with her nice linens, we say grace and please and thank you and we avoid controversial or gross topics), my cousin decided to tell us a joke: "How do you make a hormone?"................"You don't pay her." Which she topped off with a "buh dum dum ching"...while the rest of us stared back, then laughed after we picked our jaws up from the mashed potatoes. OK, I don't think Grandma laughed, but most everyone else did.