What I am thankful for this year…

Is there anything better than giggly girls in onesies around the Christmas Tree?

When I was a little girl it seemed as if there were long stretches of time in which nothing exciting ever happened. Sometimes those stretches of time were heaven itself: summer vacations lying on my back of the hill in my front yard, or the winter afternoons between Christmas and New Years. At other times, those long stretches seemed interminable, such as the stretch between January and Spring Break when I was in college.

Now, however, life is coming at me so quickly I barely have time to experience it, let alone capture it in my blog or journal. But I can’t let Thanksgiving weekend pass without sharing some of the extraordinary things for which I am thankful.

• Top of my list is my growing realization that God made it all. He owns it all. He controls it all. What a weight off my shoulders that is!
• I am thankful that I have a family I adore. I’m not just talking about my immediate family, either. I love the nieces and nephews scattered from Pittsburgh to California and every stop inbetween. I am also thankful for the handful of friends who are as close as family, friends with whom we share a lifetime commitment. Is there anything that can compare to that?
• For the past few days I’ve been SO thankful to live in South Florida. We’ve had a string of the kind of days that make the rest of you jealous. Glorious!
• Last week my daughter Kylie received a facebook message from her half birth-sister. This was the first contact we have had with them, and I’m SO thankful that we found three half sisters, the youngest of whom is just two months old. We’ve chatted with the oldest of her sisters (age 22) and are thankful to begin a relationship with this precious family that gave us our Kylie.
• I’m giving thanks these days, too, for Jillian. Her creativity and persistence always astound me. She’s teaching me a lot of lessons, that’s for sure!
• At the totally superficial level, I’m thankful for: my comfy couch (even with the feathers that poke me!), the new soy candles I found that smell incredible, the taste of a peppermint mocha latte from Starbucks in a red cup, hanging out with people who keep me young, the movie the Blind Side (LOVED it!), homemade rolls which I ate all weekend, even though they will lead to more homemade rolls that I exercise off at the gym. Think about all those little comforts that brighten our days!

So that’s what I’ve been up to in this time of silence from Coffee Shop Journal. I’ve been basking and battling with all the family on the couch, enjoying getting to know new family we never knew existed, and keeping it all running full steam ahead!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Tagged as: Christmas, thankful, Thanksgiving