Thanksgiving Gratitude

I know that Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on the things we’re grateful for, but since I write entries in a gratitude journal most every day I wasn’t sure if anything special would come to mind today. The more I think about it, though, the more I realize the things I’m most appreciative of in life are actually the simplest, smallest, everyday happenings that I try really hard not to take for granted. First and foremost I’m grateful for my husband and my sons. Today was the first Thanksgiving in a lot of years that we stayed at home and simply spent the day together, just the four of us, and it was really pretty wonderful. I wanted to prepare a feast that was made with love and would fill our bellies until they were bulging with comfort. I’m pretty confident I achieved both and that is what led me to think of an item for tonight’s gratitude journal entry. As we sat at the table earlier this afternoon, passing around dish after dish of food to pile on our plates, it occurred to me how deeply thankful I am for having such a bountiful holiday meal. Some might even consider it a little gluttonous. I thought about how fortunate we are to not only have enough food for everyone to go back for seconds, but also enough to put away for leftovers that would probably last two or three days. I’m pretty sure I made too much food, but I know it will all get eaten because these teenagers of mine seem to be hungry all the time. Literally. All. The. Time. Did I mention how grateful I am for my sons? Because I am, their big appetites and all.

After we ate a late Thanksgiving lunch, cleaned up the kitchen, and changed into some stretchy clothes we didn’t do anything at all for about an hour and it was pretty darn fantastic. There was no hurry to go anywhere or do anything specific and while I felt a slight twinge of guilt and selfishness when I first suggested we stay home for Thanksgiving, those feelings all disappeared when I saw how relaxed everyone was during and after our meal. Some of us more relaxed than others, like Paul and Cody who both took afternoon naps right there in the living room. Do you ever take naps? If not, I highly recommend it every now and then because it’s truly one of the most blissful treats you can give yourself and it doesn’t cost a cent.

We finished up our day with a game of Monopoly (Nick won, I think for the first time ever), a few games of a fun game called Smart Ass, and since Nick was on a roll he took on Paul and achieved world domination in a game of Risk. I’d say we did Thanksgiving right and my only hope is that we don’t wait an entire year to have another no-place-to-be family day like the one we had today because it is definitely worth repeating. Next time, though, I’m totally going to win at Monopoly.