Thankful

Thankful. We are so truly blessed.  Sometimes I look at my life and wonder how it's all possible.  How can one person be given so many gifts.  I have an amazing family, both big and small, with a wonderful husband and two terrific kids, but also fabulous parents, siblings, in-laws, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.  I love where I work, my teaching partner, and the students.  We are blessed with a nice house out in the country, and have all that we could ever need, and so much more.

It makes me so sad that there are others out there with so much less.  Either challenging families to live with, unemployment, no homes, no food...  I can't stand the thought of it, and sometimes I struggle with what to do about it.  We do what we can, I guess.  We donate of our time and money when we can to places/people in need.  And hopefully, we don't take for granted what we have.  Although, I'm afraid we do.  I don't think you can truly appreciate all you have until it's gone.  I'm so thankful God has taken such good care of us. 

So yesterday, I tried to pay extra attention to all we have been blessed with... big and small.

• The kids sleeping in a tad so I can enjoy a beautiful sunrise and a cup of coffee.

• Monkey bread for breakfast.
• Play time with my little ones while Pat slept in.

• Time with family for a delicious Thanksgiving meal, which required little of me in terms of cooking or cleaning.  Heck, my sister-in-law even entertained Henry through the meal, so I could eat almost all my food before it got cold!

Poor fella could NOT wait for dinner to be done.  Thank God for grandmas who sneak bites of turkey.

• Successfully made cheesecake for the very first time.  I'm SO thankful it turned out, and was such a hit.  My mother-in-law and sister-in-law kept oohing and aahing over it.  I started to wonder if it was just a show.

• Time for the kids to bond with their cousins. 

Watching Daddy fly his toy helicopter he got as a birthday gift.

• Safe driving on the way home, despite snow and wind.  (Also thankful for seat warmers.)
• A warm home and cozy bed to return sleepy heads to.
• And right now, the day after Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for on-line deals (Christmas cards for 17.5 cents each, including shipping and postage, thank you very much.), a playdate for Olivia with her future cousin, Henry taking a good nap, and leftover cheesecake.

Someday I'll be thankful for a decent picture of the kids together.  Not today. 

Happy Thanksgiving!