Happy Thanksgiving Loves!!

I’m finishing up my turkey brine for the turkey I’m cooking tomorrow night. I do love turkey… and Thanksgiving, and friends coming to dinner.

I can’t say I’ve always been a thankful person, I used to be an unappreciative pain in the ass. I guess that’s part of being a youngest child. It certainly had nothing to do with my parents, they taught us well, it just took a while for their lessons to sink in.

I am most thankful for my parents, without them nothing else comes into play. Everything I am thankful for somehow stems from them, even if it’s in a very round about way. They made me a thankful person…

Some say it’s crap to only be thankful on Thanksgiving. I think most are thankful every day, they just voice it on Thanksgiving.

Here is my list:

• My husband thanks me at every meal.
• I get to have a garden.
• I have a job that makes people feel beautiful. I love hearing, “it’s perfect, it’s exactly what I wanted…” with a huge smile on their face.

• I get to go to bed when I’m tired and wake when I’m rested.
• I am healthy.
• I have access to good quality food.
• My husband and I like the same food.

• I have loving in-laws. When you marry an only boy with three sisters, things could get ugly… they never have.
• Right when I wrote the above, I got a message from my sister in-law “Happy Thanksgiving, miss and love you!”
• My mom taught me to cook.
• My parents still love each other.
• My siblings and how much we love each other.
• I get new windows in 18 days.
• I remember most of my dreams.

• Growing my very first pumpkin.
• This post keeps getting interrupted with texts from friends and family with messages of love and thankfulness.
• My family loves my husband.
• Photography came to me at just the right moment in my life. I still remember exactly where I was at that moment.
• I live in an area where the seasons are all equal.
• I grew the brussels sprouts I’m making tomorrow night.
• My friends.
• My education, and the people I met during.
• I get to talk to my mom all the time, and usually for no less than an hour.
• 16 nieces and nephews.
• I was fairly young when all my grandparents passed away, but my husband lets me borrow his grandma. She gave me this Christmas cactus, it’s blooming right now.

• After four years of my goldfish plant not blooming, I finally got a fish!

• My house and all my treasures.

My basement insulation…

These were my grandma Natalie’s…

For a year the women in my life scoured thrift stores for amber and  green glass for my wedding. I have it all over my house. I can see four different pieces from where I sit. They remind me of that beautiful September day, and those great ladies who helped make it so perfect.

I finally got my back porch, yard,  and garden tucked away for the winter. It was the most perfect late fall day. The light was amazing, not anything “beautiful” I don’t think most people would think it was anything special. It was thick and grey and clear, the colors were saturated and hazy at the same time. I know a picture is worth a 1000 words, but there was a feeling that went with it that couldn’t be captured with any lens. It was one of those moments you put your camera away and just soak it in.

My hand print from kindergarden. I did not like my kindergarden teacher, but I am thankful for this.

I am very strict on no Christmas before Thanksgiving… Actually, I don’t like Christmas between Halloween and the day after Thanksgiving. However, I always choose a Christmas wine charm at the Wags’,  I keep Christmas lights up year-round, and I buy vintage Christmas treasures whenever I see them.

Cheese! with a face full of cheese…

• This little girl is always happy to see me when I come home, even if I’ve only been gone ten minutes.

My Mr. and two of his more ambitious friends did the Spartan Race at Fenway… He dislocated his toe right out of the gate, had Rudy pop it back in and finished the race, he is such a badass.

A very happy day of turkey dinner,  family, and thankfulness Loves! I’m off to make pie.

• Pie.