Thanksgiving and a List

Thanksgiving.  It's by far my favorite holiday.  Because it's all about family.  Being with your family.  Simple.  I guess it's also about stuffing your face with yummy-ness, playing Yahtzee to see who the king or queen is this year, drinking too much wine, telling stories, laughing so hard the cheeks hurt, standing on chairs to boss people to the table, the occasional slip of a naughty word in front of Grandma, kids running wild, hugs from cousins, aunts talking in accents, merciless teasing from uncles.  Thanksgiving is simply good stuff.  

But really, the entire essence of Thanksgiving is to be aware of what we have.  Be aware of the goodness.  Bumps happen in our roads, we're tripped up at times by glitches in the system, but life is fabulous.  It really is.  

My hope is you all spent yesterday with your loved ones.  Eating too much turkey and being the loud inappropriate one at the table.  My Thanksgiving was exactly what I wanted.  Family and laughing and wine and tapping my aunt on the hiney and amazing cupcakes my sister-in-law made.  They were completely homemade and completely yummy.  I do believe I had two.  Fine.  It was actually more like three.  But I'm not sure the last one counts because I took the bottom half off and just ate the top.  

Cute baby alert.  

Perfect frosting job alert.  Done by my aunt who I tapped on the hiney all day.  She didn't think it was funny as I did.  But she sure can frost a cookie.  

Look!  Momma Debi and I matched the kuchen.  And I wore a shirt that made me look like a turkey.  You can't really tell in the picture but it had flouncy ruffles on the front and it was turkey-ish.  So my one aunt said, "I love that shirt."  I said, "I feel like a turkey."  She said, "I just love it.  Let me feel it."  I walked over to her on the couch and she proceeded to rub her hand on the front of my shirt.  Nothing like having your aunt feel you up on Thanksgiving.

Paxton didn't dress like a turkey but he did wear his Hooters shirt. 

Like I said, great day with family.  And last night when I got home from the festivities, I sat on my couch and thought about what I was grateful for in my life.  And here's what I came up with.  

I'm thankful for...

Backing all of my photographs up.  My computer crashed last week.  Like it thinks it no longer even has a hard drive.  Whatever that means.  And if I wasn't a backer upper, I might have had a nervous breakdown.  

Being a quick drive from my entire family.  I don't have to miss any of the important stuff and that's just how I like it.  I get to watch things like Sister Pister play a witch in a musical and sing a rap about vegetables.  My heart soars to see her do her thing.  And within a half an hour of my front door, I can be smushing on my nieces and nephews...visiting with my sister-in-law...while my brother plays imaginary drums.  It's just what he does.  Always has.    

The gene I was given which makes me willing to walk up to a complete stranger and talk.  Talk, talk, and talk some more.  It must be a gene.  I don't think you can learn that.  

My running shoes.  

Seedless grapes.  Only because now I realize the seeded ones are not cool to deal with.  

Family dinners at the farm.  They are a mild gong show but I love them.  The best part is the after.  When we all putter around and find ourselves plopped in various contortions in the living room.  

Book club.  Reading is a stitch in my daily quilt.  Plus, I love my book club ladies.  They push me to look at life through different lenses and they like to drink wine.  Need I say more? 

My parents.  I have some seriously fantastic parents.  For many reasons.  Of course the normal parental ones like they support us, they love us, they fed us when we were little.  But also because of reasons that make the two I call Mom and Dad a tad unexpected.  Things like this...they are cultured travelers who will try just about anything, they both have iPhones and aren't afraid to use them, they encourage ridiculous behavior, they cook crazy food you would never think would come out of a farm kitchen in the middle of nowhere North Dakota, they text back just as goofy of things as I text them, they have hobbies they are passionate about...and probably the reason that makes them the coolest is they still like each other.  

Craft supplies.  Office supplies.  Sewing supplies.  Art supplies.  Any kind of supplies because they let my organization freak flag fly.  

My bosses because they are all strong leaders who haven't forgotten that at the end of the day, we are all people, real people, doing the best we can.  I'm a lucky girl to work for people who trust me, believe in me, and understand that sometimes I just have to be a bit silly.  Along with those bosses goes the amazing coworkers who do the exact same things.  Except they can't fire me.     

Food, shelter, and clothing.  I'm especially thankful I have enough articles of clothing in my closet so I can always be layered.  I feel naked with only one shirt on.  Really naked.  Two or three or even four is more my style. 

My friends.  I hope everyone has friends who feed their souls like mine do.  I'm not sure how I got so lucky to have friends that are worth gold.  They... 

• don't think it's weird when I sleep on their couch.  
• nerd-herd out with me over crafty projects.  
• call me at 7:34 in the morning and say, "I don't have anything cute to wear!  I'm putting the girls in the car and we're coming over."  To which I reply, "Okay I'll have the cute stuff ready."  As I put Dora the Explora on my television for the girls to watch while we play dress up.  
• let me kiss their babies and get their littles all rowdy. 
• are honest with me.  Like they will tell me when I am being a banana.  A banana who is wound up over things that do not matter.  When they are done being honest with me and I'm not spinning anymore, they tell me, "You're a grapefruit now."  
• are funny.  Make me pee my pants with tears rolling down my cheeks funny.  
• do scary things like sky dive.  
• don't simply have trying to achieve their goals be enough...they run and chase and after their dreams.  Which makes me not afraid to go after mine. 
• will get ready to go out on the town on a Friday night in a Wendy's bathroom with me.  
• accept me for who I am.   

The set of kitchen strainers or colanders or whatever you call them that I ordered from Sil's Pampered Chef party.  I didn't have any before and I tell you what, they sure make life in the kitchen easier.  No more holding a plate over a pot of steaming hot noodles for this girl and no more figuring out creative ways to rinse black beans.  Strainers.  They are the answer to rinsing black beans.  I've grown up now.   

Health.  When you or people around you are not healthy, it becomes all consuming.  Being healthy is a biggie, so much so that the words escape me.  And Momma Debi still cancer free.  Don't even get me started on being thankful for that.

My camera.  It keeps me sane.  For real.  

Writing.  It keeps me even more sane.  For real. 

The people who read this space of mine.  I don't really know who all reads this, but I feel you out there.  And when you laugh with me and send me messages and drop muffins off at my door so I come home to them and mail me surprises and email me and cry with me and come running in my office with words of encouragement to keep writing...you pretty much rock.  I'm grateful for you all.  

Let's pretend we just clinked our wine glasses with a "Cheers to you!"   

I returned home from Black Friday shopping a few minutes ago and now I'm off to my brother and sister-in-laws to help work the steers.  Nothing says fun times on a Friday afternoon like looking at the butt of a steer.

I don't have a picture of a butt of a steer handy.  But imagine one here.  That would have been a good ending.  Instead I will highlight the amazing cupcakes again.  They were seriously that yummy.