Thankful

This weekend, on top of being my Supernatural Geekfest, is Thanksgiving.  It's also my 13th wedding anniversary.  I will blog about that later. 

I love Thanksgiving.  Obviously, I got married that weekend, and we had Thanksgiving dinner for our reception.  Turkey and the trimmings is my favorite food in the world.  I love having a dinner with family, with the house smelling like good food, being in comfy clothes and sleepy with full satisfaction.

This year, I get 3 dinners, one with the Rousseau's on Sunday, one with my family on Monday, and one with all my friends on the following Saturday.  I can't wait for all 3 of them. 

We really don't have any big Thanksgiving day traditions.  For quite a few years, my family would head up to a cottage we would rent up north.  That was a good tradition.  We didn't do it this year, because of money, but I am hoping we will do it next year, or soon.

What I really try to do, though, is take stock of why I am thankful.  Hokey, I know.  Some years, it is easy.  Some years, it is very hard. 

So, why am I thankful this year?

- I am thankful for my job, as much as I sometimes bitch about it.  I work with good people, I can learn new skills, and challenge myself.  I can do good work (even if it sometimes feels trivial).  It pays my bills, keeps a roof over our heads, puts food on the table.  It keeps my family going.
- I am thankful for my parents and my brother.  My parents are both still with me, thank God, and relatively healthy (who doesn't have their aches and pains?)  They are active and involved in my life and the lives of my children.  They are kind and caring and giving.  My brother is coming into his own.  He is a wonderful uncle to my kids, and Sawyer, in particular, is enamoured with him.  I am grateful to know, and keep getting to know him.
- I am thankful for my in-laws.  I have been in their family for 20 years.  They have welcomed me with open arms.  We have shared happiness and sorrow, laughter and tears.  I am as comfortable with them as I am with my own flesh and blood. 
- I am thankful for my friends.  They stand with me and keep me strong.  They make me laugh and cry.  They keep me sane and grounded.  I have so many fun and wonderful memories, revolving around them.  When we sit and rehash old times, and plan new adventures, it is one of my happiest times.
- I am thankful for Geoff.  He loves me, truly.  He cares about my happiness, my health, my well being.  He supports me in anything I do.  When I am freaked out and crazy, he can calm me down.  When I am sad, he will let me cry and not judge.  He's in for the long haul, is trustworthy and good.  He really is a hero.
- I am thankful for Sebastian.  He has taught me patience and strength.  He is my pillar, my solid, my reality.  He is, very literally, a piece of my soul, walking outside my body.  I look in his eyes, every day, and am in awe of this magical boy that I willed into creation.  That he is mine is as true as the fact that I am his.  I cannot imagine, and do not want to imagine, my life without him. 
- I am thankful for Sawyer.  She is amazing.  I see myself reflected in those smart baby blues.  I hear myself in her voice and her laugh.  She is unrestrained and wild.  She is a fairy, who made it through the veil, because I wished her here.  I can't believe that she is truly of this place, but that she is an old soul, come back to test, and tease and grow up with me.  I think she will be my life's greatest adventure.
- I am thankful for my dog.  His smell, his warmth, his sleepy sighs.
- I am thankful for my home, warm and secure and cracked and old.
- I am thankful that I can walk through my neighbourhood at night, unafraid.
- I am thankful for my health, my intelligence, the opportunities I have had in my life.
- I am thankful for my blog, which allows me to speak, when I literally can't get the words out of my mouth.  It lets me be heard, when I feel tiny and silent.  It lets me reach out, when I am too shy and scared to move.

There is so much more to be thankful for.  But this is enough.  For now.

Rosie N. Grey
The N stands for "never enough gratitude".