Growing up, Thanksgiving was a day of work. At some point, my parents hit upon a great plan for my dad to get work done outside and my mom to get dinner fixed without kids harassing her. Thanksgiving day became the day we restacked the wood pile. And somehow the timing always worked out such that we couldn't eat (i.e. dinner wasn't done yet) until the pile was restacked.
Then we moved and my parents decided the furnace was better than the wood-burning stove (no, it's not, but it is less work). They just had a dwindling family, see, and now they would have to haul, chop, and stack the wood themselves so it didn't seem to be so important.
Eventually, my mother started a new Thanksgiving tradition of going around the table and saying what you're grateful for. Mostly, I can't remember what I said. Since I'm not with my extended family today, I thought maybe I'd take a minute and share with you what I'm grateful for this year.
*My husband. As marriages are falling apart all around us, I'm grateful he's willing to work on ours.
*My children. People we know struggle to have babies and I've been blessed with four.
*My husband's job. More and more jobs are disappearing and we are grateful every day that Randy has a great job that he loves.
*My education. One of the best moments of my life was earning my master's degree. Nobody can take my knowledge away from me.
*Good health. We can get out of bed every day and go about our activities.
*Rod & Christy inviting us to share Thanksgiving with them. I don't think I could bring myself to cook up a turkey in this apartment. I hope they have pumpkin pie.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
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