Giving Thanks
Lots of Thanksgiving blogs this week, hmm?? Now ordinarily, I can bitch and moan with the best of them. Too much traffic, idiot drivers, crowded malls, spilled lattes, DH annoying me, kids making me nuts, book stalling, new synopsis not forming.
Bitching is easy. It’s the thankful thing that seems so much harder. And I wonder why. I mean in the grand scheme of things, we all have more to be thankful for than to bitch about. So maybe it’s important to every once in awhile sit down and actually count some of our blessings. Here are some of mine—
My family...Yep, even when they drive me insane, I can’t imagine my life without them. When the DH, the kids and I are all together, we spend most of our time laughing. SUCH a gift. They are the loves of my life. Then there’s the huge extended family...and I mean huge. They’re loud and funny and a little crazy which is why I like ‘em all so much. (I just have to remind myself of that when they’re back to making me insane.)
My job...Oh yeah. A big one. Yes, I moan about the days when the book is going nowhere or I can’t figure out the characters or dear God, I need a scene! ANY scene! But this is a great job. I sit on my couch, with my laptop and I daydream for a living. It just doesn’t get better than that!
My friends...Some people go their whole lives and never find the kind of amazing friends I’ve been blessed with. These women are smart, funny, ambitious and generous. Their hearts are as big as their imaginations and that’s really saying something. They’re always there. In good times and bad. Together we’ve laughed and cried and celebrated and bitched and moaned and without them, my world would be black and white instead of the Technicolor wonder it is. So to all of you (and you know who you are), thank you.
Tomorrow, the family will be at my mom’s house for Thanksgiving. We’ll miss my dad, as we have every year since he passed away. He was a great storyteller and always had the household rocking with laughter.
At mom’s place, there’ll be enough food for three armies, wine, (see above, re: crazy family,) enough noise to deafen us all for a week and enough love to remind us all of just how much we have. We’ll laugh and talk and share stories from all of the holidays past. We’ll toast my dad—whose ashes are in a blue and white Biscotti jar with a view of the big screen so he can keep up with the games—and I know that wherever he is, dad’ll be stopping by long enough to help us give thanks.
posted by Maureen Child @ 9:02 AM
10 Comments:
At 6:41 PM,
Anonymous said…
I WISH I HAD THE "WAY WITH WORDS" THAT MAUREEN HAS, SHE TOOK THAT FROM HER FATHER, HE WAS SO BUSY BEING A POLICEMAN HE DID NOT GIVE HIMSELF TIME TO WRITE OR HE WOULD HAVE BEEN A WONDERFUL WRITER ALSO.
I TO LOOK FORWARD TO BEING TOGETHER WITH EVERYONE BECAUSE WE DO HAVE TONS OF FUN AND LOTS OF GOOD FOOD, EVEN IF I DO COOK MOST OF IT LOL.
SO I WILL EVEN LET MYSELF HAVE A VERY SMALL PIECE OF MAUR'S RAINDEER CAKE, IT IS YUMMY.
EVERYONE HAVE A WONDERFULL HOLIDAY AND EAT LOTS AND ENJOY YOUR FAMILIES EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM.
SALLYE
At 6:41 PM,
Anonymous said…
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At 6:41 PM,
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At 6:41 PM,
Anonymous said…
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At 11:08 AM,
sdpenson said…
Maureen,
I have been over Dana's helping with the wonderful crazy sit down dinner we have every year.
Our family sounds like yours, loud,funny alot of laughs and a lot of us.
We get on each others nerves but will fight to our last breath if anyone else messes with them. So goes large families.
Your mom sounds like such a darling..she understands...why we go through all of this fuss.
Have wonderful day with your loved ones...and take lots of pictures...they will be bring smiles to your face next year:-)
Happy Thanksgiving
~Sandy
At 6:30 PM,
Maureen Child said…
Hi Mom!! Had a great time at your house as always!!
Sandy.....Hope you had a wonderful day, I'm betting you did! We're just like your family. We rag on each other all day long and then leap to their defense if an outsider speaks up!
At 6:31 PM,
Maureen Child said…
Oh, and I took LOTS of pics!! LOL
At 11:02 AM,
Christine Rimmer said…
Beautifully put, Maureen.
At 1:34 PM,
sdpenson said…
Maureen,
We had a great Thanksgiving!!!
Dana and her Mr.P were scratching their heads at 1PM because everything was done! We kept thinking something must be wrong because everything went so smoothly . Literally everything on the check list was done.
This is even more peculiar for large families of all ages..teeny tiny..to Great Grandparents..there was not one irritation.
Friends got along wonderfully and so did family. I have to laugh..there is always someone in the family that gets on your nerves at the end of the evening.
Not this time...good Karma???
The only conflict was a very long dicey Trivial Pursuit Game going on for hours...no kidding..No one wanted to concede...at 10PM (we ate at 3PM) I think it was a 3 way tie.
It is a good thing that it was not Scrabble....I swear no one EVER throws in the towel on that game.
We took pix too.I can't imagine not having my family and close friends with me on the holiday's..
just love them all.
It sounds like you had a grand time at your mom's. From her writing about her daughter...I think she must be one grand lady.
~Sandy
At 6:15 PM,
Maureen Child said…
Thanks, Sandy.......Mom is terrific! And like you, we had strangely good family Karma this year. It was almost eerie!! Makes you stop and wait for the other shoe to drop.......=)
Hey Chris!
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