Counting my blessings

Here it is Wednesday evening, I guess I could call it Thanksgiving Eve. Why is it that Christmas Eve is practically a holiday in and of itself, but none of the other major holidays score their own Eve. I guess Christmas should be that special, we are celebrating our Savior's birth after all. I just think it's kinda funny that as much as human beings love repetition that we would have come up with a few more "Eve's" by now.

And then there is Halloween which is an Eve with no holiday the next day. Have you ever realized that. Funny huh?

For this post though, for all intents and purposes, I consider myself smack in the middle of Thanksgiving Eve.

And ya know what? I'm feeling pretty darn good. Ya betcha.(Did that sound too Sarah Paliney?)

I'm feeling good for several reasons and I decided to make a list of some of the things I'm feeling particularly good about tonight.

I'm feeling really good that my daughter Heidi and my son-in-law Jeff, and my granddaughters Abbey and Lindsay came down from Spokane. This is really a much bigger deal than it appears. We had all (all, being me and Don and Shawn, and Donald and Lisa and little girls.) agreed to head over to Spokane this year and treat ourselves to a Thanksgiving dinner courtesy of Heidi.

Heidi is a really good cook and has NEVER turned out a bad Turkey. (That's really quite an accomplishment if you think about it)

Anyway, a few weeks ago I started adding up how much it was going to cost for us to go to Spokane, stay two nights in a Hotel, (Donald and Lisa had dibs on Heidi's extra beddage, and that's really okay, Don and I are actually more "stay in a Hotel" travelers, than "stay with friends or family" ones.) Provide my assignments to the dinner, and then more gas for the ride home. So I did the only thing that made sense.

I called Heidi and tried to sell her on the idea of them coming up here.

I pointed out that it would be a lot cheaper for me to reimburse their gas expenditure, than for us to come over there.

Heidi, failed to acknowledge my logic.

Then I realized that if we were in Spokane my mom would be here all by her little lonesome. The places where she could have normally gone (her sister's, my sister's) were for various reasons not available this year. Not only that but my 26 year old son Kelly would have been stuck here because he has to work on Thanksgiving.

It made me sad to think of him coming home from work to an empty house with no Thanksgiving left-overs in sight.

Heidi, acquiesced, somewhat reluctantly, she did have good reasons though. There's a pretty good chance that this may be their last year here in Washington. Their last chance to have everyone over for Thanksgiving, for who knows how long.

So kudos to Heidi and Jeff, for agreeing to come here. Heidi has by now set up camp in Lisa's kitchen and is performing her magic for tomorrows dinner.

Which brings me to the reason for this post.

I am thankful.

I am thankful for so many things. And I know that I won't have time tomorrow, and I know that by Friday, I may be more concerned about getting ready for Christmas than writing a list of all my blessings. So here I sit in my family room surrounded by Abbey and Lindsay, my sweet Shawn, and my much loved, middle child Kelly.

The coziness of it all is just really filling me with feelings of gratitude.

Without further adieu I present to you the things I am feeling grateful for this Wednesday, November the 26th at 9:30 in the evening.

I am really happy that due to Heidi's influence I have gotten most of my food assignments for tomorrow, if not completed, at least half way finished. Trust me, for me, this is a "real big deal".

I am so grateful, I could cry, that my precious baby granddaughter Elisabeth, who has been blind due to a brain malfunction (her beautiful little eyes are perfect) has shown in the last few days that there is a very good chance that she is having moments of sight.

This is a HUGE big deal!

I am thankful to be blessed with a son-in-law and daughter-in-law whom I truly love. Lisa and I have such a comfortable, loving and close relationship that we are quite often, each others favorite choice to spend time with. Jeff and I have fun teasing each other and just generally joking around but we both know there is a real loving relationship behind it all.

I love you Lisa. I love you Jeff.

I think I have probably talked about this before, but I am so blessed that Heavenly Father let us be Shawn's mom and dad. Shawn is just my guy. He is a mama's boy, through and through. And it is such an adventure watching him grow and stretch and learn.

Actually I am just plain thankful for all five of my children. They each are so different, but in so many ways they are perfect just as they are.

I love you Donald. I love you Heidi. I love you Kelly. I love you Shawn. I love you Courtney.

I am thankful for my dear husband. I can't imagine being married to a more loving, helpful, considerate, thoughtful, and just plain all around good guy. Don can look at me first thing in the morning (when I am perfectly aware of how terrible I look) and he sees nothing but beauty. I am NOT an easy person to live with, and Don has not only stuck with me through 32 years of marriage, he lets me know in tons of ways that he considers it a privilege.

I LOVE you Don!

I am thankful for my house. I love my house. It has a few things I would change if I could, (I would love a bigger bedroom) but I don't ever dwell on things like that. All I have to do is remember how many people in this world are grateful for their own little cardboard shanty.

In the face of such desperate poverty, how could I ever complain.

I am grateful to have been born in the USA. There are other really wonderful places in the World to be born as well, but it breaks my heart to think that the majority of the people on this earth, do in fact, live in the most miserable, filthy, unhealthy, and poverty stricken third world countries. And yet even they find joy in life.

How can I ever complain about anything in light of that.

In the same vein, I am so grateful for the incredible book, "The City of Joy" written by Dominique Lapierre. This is a life changing book. You will never again feel sorry for whatever condition you happen to find yourself in after reading this powerful book. It is the story of a Catholic Priest who had such a love for his fellow humans that he moves into the slums of Calcutta India to live with the poorest of the poor. If you read nothing else in 2009, please procure this book and READ it. I promise it will change the way you look at life.

Well I am getting tired. It also occurs to me that I have a really big day in front of me tomorrow. I think I will sign off, tuck my two granddaughters into their couch beds, kiss them goodnight, give Shawn his nightly "love and kiss", and go find my husband and tell him that it's bedtime.

I love my life and I pray that you love yours!

Good night.