Happy Thanksgiving!
I know it’s been a long time since I posted. I’m a slacker. I’ve been busy but there is really no excuse for not keeping up with my blogging. Going to have to work harder at that.
I have much to be thankful this year. On Sunday, we piled into a rental car and drove the thousand or so miles to Missouri to spend the week with family and friends. Other than a stiff wind about the first half of the drive, we had no trouble at all. We were tired when we got here, but we’ve spent the last few days really enjoying spending time with our friends and family. We’ve gone shopping, eaten out, slept hard, and feel renewed. I still hate St. Louis weather and traffic, but I have missed my friends and family.
My thankfuls this year include being able to make this trip in the first place. As my job shifted from part time to full time, we suddenly had the money to be able to make a true trip home. I’m a bargain shopper, but there are some things that aren’t cheap no matter what you do. For us, it was the hotel, and the rental car. Even with discounts, these things are still pricey. I couldn’t have done it if my job had not gone full time. This is Klown’s first trip home in the two years since we left. The girls and I were able to go home last year for a short stretch, but all of us getting to go, and spending an entire week – this has been priceless to us.
I am thankful that I have the intelligence to choose NOT to shop on Thanksgiving or Black Friday. There is no deal worth my peace of mind, or worth making other people have to work through the level of crazy this kind of shopping is. I will still shop for Christmas, but it will be online, or on weekdays, or anything other than giving up what is sacred about Thanksgiving day and that whole holiday weekend.
I am thankful to have healthy family. My mother is living a happy life in Florida, and I get to have her live with me for a month or so every year. She is able to travel, and dig in the garden, and do what she wants with her life. She is blessed, and I am blessed to have her in mine. My dad is hale and hearty as he approaches another decade, and my amazing step-mom is just that, amazing. They are a happy couple, and generous beyond belief. My brothers and their wives will surround our table this year, and the grandkids are not kids anymore. We will have a day of turkey and stuffing and potatoes and green bean casserole and wine and some hard apple cider I brought with me from Colorado. The Packers will play football just for me (although without my beloved Aaron Rodgers as he recovers from a shoulder injury), and we will come back to our hotel tonight in a turkey-induced haze.
I am thankful to have a beautiful and warm house in a wonderful complex that believes in green space and quiet. I have a fireplace that warms us, an office I can escape to, a guest room that our friends and family are always welcome to use for a visit, and plenty of windows to enjoy the Colorado sunshine. We have a great landlord, and we love our little town that is big enough to have what we need but small enough to be a pleasant place to live. I am blessed to live in one of the best places on earth, full of beauty and a thousand reasons to be outside. I am thankful that even though I got hurt in the mountains in December, I am walking, climbing, hiking, doing zumba, and riding my bike all the time again. I will never ski or snowboard, but I can (and will) do everything else.
I have no complaints, and if I do, I am going to keep them to myself, as my blessings far outweigh my problems. I wish everyone a blessed and happy Thanksgiving, and may the rest of the winter holiday season bring you more joy than pain. Love to all of you.
