Thanksgiving morning 2012

Happy Thanksgiving Morning! It is a beautiful sunshiny day and I am still in my PJ's at 10:00 AM with my bare toes tucked under the toasty warm heat register. I am appreciating my embarrassment of riches this Thanksgiving morning! Thanksgiving week started with a visit from my favorite youngest daughter, Becky and her husband Todd who drove in from Plano Texas for a few days. We were the first stop on their Thanksgiving Week Midwestern Tour. The days were filled with good food, a day trip to the 9/11 Flight 93 Memorial, a couple trips to Jo-Ann Fabrics and lots of sewing. We made these two great items pictured above - a purse and a book bag. Becky found the pattern and directions on Pinterest. Beck and I always plan to sew when we are together and I will go down to Plano this summer for another sewing marathon. I gave her a Jo-Ann gift card for her birthday today (my turkey baby) and told her she was the child of my heart who loved to sew as her mother does! Becky and Todd left Tuesday for Columbus, Ohio where Todd's family is and are now at my sister, Denise's in Wheaton, Illinois for a Long (my birth family) family Thanksgiving. George and I are headed to a small gathering (of 30) for the holiday meal today. I slept in til 9 and then came downstairs to the kitchen just in time to help George truss the bird. Love sewing on poultry! The house smells like the Thanksgivings of my childhood as I sit here and type this. George will also make a green bean dish (not the traditional green bean casserole, however, which, personally, I love!) and I have made my traditional pumpkin bread. Life is good. As is also my tradition, here are the things I am very grateful for this Thanksgiving morning: I am thankful: 1) For waking up every morning next to my love, George, both of us relatively healthy and extremely happy. 2) For having a reason to get up everyday, to go work at a great place, The Westmoreland, and do work that is meaningful and adds positively to the world. 3) For two wonderful grown daughters, Jamie and Becky, who have meaningful lives of their own with spouses and families and friends far beyond the one they were born into and who are also doing good work with their lives. 4) For my terrific sons-in-law, Jeff and Todd who love my daughters so much and for my very special grandson, Wyatt. 5) For a re-elected President Barack Obama, may God hold him safe in the palm of his hand, to lead our country through difficult times, 5) To live in a time when the wheel is turning away from the few and the powerful to the many and the diverse. 6) For my parents who are still living and all my extended family: sisters, brothers, in-laws, nieces, nephews... 7) For friends and neighbors who listen to me and support me and give me the great privilege to listen to them and support them. 8) For all the many small things that give my life such joy and purpose and relative ease. 9) For the awareness that having been so blessed, I am now obligated to give back to those who have needs and 10) To be able to give back. And I am very grateful for hot water piped right into my house and available to me with the turn of a dial - I'm off to the shower! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!