Thankful

Thanksgiving is always a time of the year when you can't help but reflect on your life and see how lucky you are. I know this should be done more than once or twice a year, but life happens and we all fall into the pattern of forgetting just how good we have it sometimes. Today, giving thanks has been on my mind.

Years ago, when my brother and I were youngsters we would put on these cheesy Thanksgiving plays for our family before dinner. I would dress up like an Indian and he would dress up like a pilgrim and we would re-create the first Thanksgiving dinner. Then we would gather our family, hold hands and go around in a circle saying the most important things we were thankful for that year. It sounds corny, but the tradition actually stuck and we still hold hands in a circle and tell what we are thankful for. Luckily for everyone, we stopped doing the actual plays around middle school age. :)

I hate to admit it, but now that I'm an adult Thanksgiving has become more of a hassle than anything else. My parents are divorced, Skye's parents are divorced and our parent's parents are divorced. Basically we spend one whole day visiting family within a span of about 60 miles. We briefly eat everywhere, but we don't really get to stick around one place long enough to enjoy the company and share thanks. In recent years, I have actually missed my family's thanks sharing circle. It makes for a long day to start on the road for breakfast and not get home until ten or eleven at night. Usually, Skye and I get into a disagreement about who's family we should visit first, etc. It turns into a down right mess and we tend to forget the reason we are traveling to visit with our families. This year will mark a new tradition for us, the first year of many to come. Skye will have to work (at least half a day) on Thanksgiving and the day after. Being a police officer doesn't exactly equate to holidays off. Of course, growing up with a cop daddy I know these things and I am prepared for it. I don't mind it at all, and as hateful as it sounds I'm excited to have an excuse not to run the roads. Christmas will be very much the same way. I have always said too that once we have kids I will not be packing them up and driving all over God's green earth for holidays. If people care about seeing us, they can come to our neck of the woods sometimes too. Luckily, Skye's new job situation will give us a jump start on a hopefully less stressful holiday season. And for that, I thank him! (haha Tosh.0 humor for ya there!)

I know all of that sounds whinny, so I want to make up for that by saying the following-
I am thankful for my life and good health, despite a little bit of a rough year. I'm still kickin'!
I am beyond thankful that I have a family who wants to fight for my holiday travel time to see me.
I am overly thankful that I have an amazing boyfriend who wants to spend holidays with my family too and not do the separate holiday thing.
Words cannot describe how thankful I am for my precious brother who will be working at the fire hall on Thanksgiving, keeping families safe who accidentally burn their turkeys :).
I am truly thankful for my 2 pups who will be overjoyed to see me come home after a day of holiday running.
I am thankful for delicious holiday food - Thanksgiving is not my favorite type of food, but somehow that never stops me from stuffing my face.
I am thankful that I can afford my gym membership, and hopefully thankful for the energy that I will spend putting it to good use after the previously mentioned face stuffing.
We are blessed to have a beautiful new car that we can use to drive us across East TN to visit our families in comfort and style.
I am overly thankful for Skye's new job - 1 month until graduation from the academy!- working holidays is minor in my world, compared to the good that he will be able to offer our community during his tenure.
I am recently thankful for this blog. Even though nobody reads it probably, it gives me an outlet to bitch, boast and moan and I need that sometimes!

Lastly for today, I am thankful for No Ordinary Blog Hop which I have joined this month and I hope to gain some followers and some awesome new blogs to follow! Check it out! Their montly theme for November is Thankfulness - which helped to inspire me today.