Happy Thanksgiving

First and foremost, I am so very thankful that I have so much to be thankful for this year!!

• I am thankful for my beautiful daughter. :)
• I am thankful for my wonderful husband who is helping me to raise our beautiful daughter (and who realizes that I need some out-of-the-house-me-time once in a while!). I am thankful that he is home for the holidays again this year and not deployed to some far-away country.
• I am thankful that my husband was able to keep his job when so many of his co-workers were being laid off a few weeks before our daughter was born.
• I am thankful that we are financially able for me to take a little while extra off work to take care of my daughter even though it means about a month without pay.
• I am thankful that all of my family is healthy this holiday season. No one is on chemo or radiation.
• I am thankful that I have amazing friends who help to pick me up when I'm sad/frustrated/overwhelmed.
• I am thankful that my doctor finally cleared me to run again!!! :)
• I am thankful for the great news that my cousins were able to adopt a second child and that a co-worker of mine is also approved to adopt a daughter. Both are very wanted children and will be blessed to have such awesome parents.
• I am thankful for a church family where I feel comfortable and like I have been there my whole life, even though it's been less than half a year that I've been going.
• I am thankful to have a nice home and comfortable furnishings.

Last year's list

Thanksgiving

"If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get."
--Frank A. Clark

Last year, I posted a blog where I made a list of things I was thankful for, however, I did it a bit after Thanksgiving on a day I was feeling very alone and down in the dumps. This year, I'm doing it on Thanksgiving, and in a much better mood. Perhaps next time I'm in a foul mood I can refer back to this page and cheer myself up a bit!

So here it is. This year (and always), I am most thankful for...

• My husband is home for the holidays! He has missed the past 2 holiday seasons due to military deployments. It is great to have him home. Celebrating with family was almost sad and depressing without him!
• As strange as this my sound... growing up redneck! I had a great childhood! While I didn't want for much, I was never spoiled either. I worked in the grove, got dirty, went camping, shot guns, thew cow patties at my brother, swam in the river, and had to help work the cattle from time to time. But I also got a brand new car for my HS graduation (with stipulations - I had to keep grades up in college for one); always had new Speedo swimsuits for swim team and any other "extras" like goggles, fins, and weight gloves that I needed (or more accurately, wanted); all of my senior year stuff was paid for like prom, homecoming, the senior beauty pageant, senior pictures, invites, announcements, etc; I was sent to college without getting/needing student loans so there is nothing for me to need to pay back now. In college I was given just enough "spending money" so that I could pay my bills without working ALL the time leaving no time for studying or a social life, but I did have to have a job. What my parents sent would not pay my bills alone, a part time job was necessary. It was a well balanced life and my parents did an amazing job at keeping me on the fine edge.
• Along with that, I am also thankful to be getting my Master's Degree without student loans. I have a scholarship that pays for 1/2 of the tuition, Daddy has agreed to pay the other half provided I get A's in the class (so far, straight A's with five more classes to take!), and I pay for my books and supplies like any computer software I've needed. I realize I am very fortunate in this and can never thank my father enough for this gift. He says my success will be payment enough for him. I hope I can live up to it!
• Family. Yes, family can get on your nerves at times, and some members of the family more than others, but I have an awesome extended family that I know, even through fights and squabbles, will always be there for me in an instant if I need them.
• A good book and a cozy blanket. I LOVE to read a good book. It's the best relaxer I've ever found. You can totally lose yourself for a while and slip into someone else's world, forgetting your own troubles momentarily.
• Good friends. Not only do I have awesome friends that are there for me in a heartbeat, but my husband has great friends as well. I may often prefer the company of my own friends, but I know that my husband's friends will always be there for me if I need them as well. Maybe not for a mani/pedi/spa day, but definitely for the bigger stuff - haha - I suddenly have images of Hubby's friends, all current or former military, getting pedicures! I have no doubt that if, God forbid, the worst happens, in addition to my own wonderful friends and family, I will have a house full of military men and women, some who may have flown in from the other side of the country or the world and many of them having never actually met me in person, offering to do anything and everything I need.
• My health. Having a father with cancer and a little brother who is in remission allows you to really see up close and personal how delicate life is. Even though I know and have met so many people who have overcome so many terrible things such as cancer, polio, and diabetes, I am am thankful that for the moment, I do not have to endure that struggle.
• My family's health. No, not everyone is as healthy as I would like them to be, but this year there is no one in the hospital (knock on wood) while I write this. My step-brother Carl is in Remission. Daddy is doing great. My nephew is out of the hospital and is beginning to crawl around and be a "normal" 1.5 year old. Do I wish everyone was in 100% perfect health, yes, of course, but I am thankful for the small things as well as the large ones.
• As yesterday's post pointed out, I remain thankful for my father's bone marrow donor, as well as everyone who is on the list.
• Of course, as always, I am highly thankful for the men and women of the armed forces who risk everything they have from their families to their very lives to protect the rest of us. They fight so that we can feel safe in our beds at night in our own homes.
• Last but definately not least, I am thankful for those who have come before me and made my way of life possible. Martin Luther King, Ghandi, the founding fathers, and numerous others who fought, made tough decisions, and never gave up on the hope and dream to make the world a better place than the one they were born into.
  
  

Thanksgiving Comes First!

A few days ago, I posted a blog complaining about the Christmas decorations going up before Thanksgiving. This post is going to be very similar to that one.

I was directed to another blog about this very same issue and decided that he was on to something! Many of his reasons for being outraged about this insulting epidemic of Christmas-before-Thanksgiving-itis echo mine.

Here is a list of why it bothers me so much to walk into a store, or even down the street and see Christmas decorations put up so early.

1. Too much of a good thing is just too much! I love Christmas. Unequivocally it is my favorite holiday. However, if the Christmas music starts mid October, by late December I'm SICK of it and just ready for the holidays to be over rather than reveling in the joy of the season. I will admit, while in CVS prior to Halloween, I did buy some Christmas socks - I run in special toe socks due to a funky pinky toe that likes to "hide" and gets blistered easily. Well, I happened to see Christmas toe socks with bells on them and knowing that I am signed up fo a "Jingle Bell Run" where everyone puts bells on their shoes, I couldn't resist them...but I didn't go in there looking for them, and they are tucked in my drawer NOT to be taked out until December!!


2. Jesus is the Reason for the Season. Sorry to all those who love Christmas yet aren't Christian, but, without Christ, there would be no Christmas...we shouldn't forget that! With the stores putting all the materialistic and commercialism aspects of the Christmas season out so early, people are less likely to focus on the real meaning of Christmas and rush right into the "my-tree-is-bigger-than-your-tree" syndrome. Oh and lets not forget that one relative or friend that we all have that uses Christmas gifts not as a symbol of love and appreciation but a show of look-at-how-much-I-spent-on-you. Please don't cheapen my favorite holiday!


3. Thanksgiving seems to get pushed under the rug. Thanksgiving is a time for reflection on the blessings we have received and a time to spend with family and loved ones, yet it is slowly becoming the forgotten holiday. Costumes and candy are out for a month before Halloween, then right after the costumes come down, the Christmas trees go up... where are the cornucopias to remind us of our bounty and the Fall foliage to remind us of change?


4. Since we are on forgotten holidays...Let's not forget that my birthday is November 30 which falls between Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Perhaps I should have joined the cruisade a little earlier, but better late than never!

To show that I do not have Christmas-itis yet, here is my Thanksgiving table :)

It isn't Christmas yet!

Has everyone forgotten about Thanksgiving? It seems that as soon as the Halloween decorations come down, up go the Christmas decorations! What happened to Thanksgiving!? 100 Days to Christmas reminded me today that it is only two weeks until Thanksgiving and 42 days until Christmas. Pssst... that means, folks, that Thanksgiving comes first; it is prior to or before Christmas. Why oh why does everyone seem to forget Thanksgiving until the day or two before.

With all of the Christmas decorations up, people are starting to get Christmas gifts (my mother informed me she bought mine, the last one she has to buy this year, yesterday and is officially finished with shopping). We even filled out our "Secret Santa" slips for school yesterday and one of my students wore Santa earrings this week too!

Thanksgiving will creep up on you this way! The day before Thanksgiving people will be scrambling around trying to get ready for Thanksgiving because they have been so focused on Christmas. That is, of course, unless you have been following 100 days to Christmas who, although she is counting down to Christmas, didn't forget to prep us for Halloween and is currently reminding us to prep for Thanksgiving so we can enjoy our day in 2 weeks rather than running around like a chicken (turkey?) with our heads cut off!

My opinion? The sequence of events is Halloween, Thanksgiving, my birthday, THEN Christmas. Don't skip those holidays in between - and yes, my birthday is a holiday! I refuse to pull out my Christmas tree and decorations until at least the day after my birthday (Which would be December 1 since my birthday is Nov 30).