Thankful

It seems like the stores around here start preparing for Christmas the day after Halloween.  Do you know what I mean?  I love Christmas and would love having more than one little month to celebrate, but it just bugs me that Thanksgiving gets overlooked.  I mean, it's the one holiday that until recently, has been hard to commercialize.  It was a time to celebrate family and all we've been blessed with.  A time to be thankful. Now of course, stores have started opening earlier and earlier for Black Friday sales.  And some don't even close for Thanksgiving anymore.  The deals start on Thanksgiving day, causing people to rush through dinner just to get the latest gadgets.  Talk about an oxymoron.  I mean, really.  The day is supposed to be set aside to be thankful and all we can do is frantically scour the ads, then jump in the car to procure as many new things as possible!  Craziness!

So at my house, I have worked to create an atmosphere of thankfulness.  We have a pretty cool Thanksgiving calendar we hang each year.  And each day we try to talk about things we are thankful for.  Here are some highlights of Honeygirl's thankful list this year:

*I'm thankful for Aunt Mary because she gives me candy!

*I'm thankful for chocolate pancakes at IHOP.

And some of her precious, way to grown-up comments on Thanksgiving Day:

*I'm thankful we live in a place where we are allowed to go to church

*I'm thankful we have enough money to live in our house every day.

The list of what I am thankful for is long.  A few highlights for me: a job (that I enjoy even!), that I don't have to go to work every day, a fabulous husband, two healthy girls, both sides of our family close by, a wonderful house, super friends, facebook to keep in touch with friends far away, cell phones to stay connected to the world, rain to keep our area beautiful, blue skies, sunny days, a God that loves me beyond belief.  And so much more.

I am ever so grateful for all I have been blessed with.