Duncan is cooking our holiday dinner at the Coast Guard station where I will go at the appointed time and enjoy every traditional thing with no uproar in our kitchen. This to me, and to Duncan I think, is ideal.
We talked last night about all we are thankful for. We are very fortunate. Here's our list.
Employment
Health benefits
Health!
Stock market is booming.
We have a new car this year -- and specific features we like a lot are: better gas mileage, easy to park, remote key entry, and when you unlock the car to get in it at night, the inside lights come on.
We are grateful for Mom -- she is an amazing, delightful person, a source of deep love, and helpful in so many ways. (case in point: after her last visit, I had 3 pair of fleece-lined tights in my drawer).
We remember in gratitude the lives and the influence on us of my Uncle Vic and Duncan's Aunt Mary.
We love our crazy cats, Fred and Ethel.
We both have immersed ourselves in new interests this year -- Duncan in the Coast Guard and me in knitting. These things make us happy and we are happy knowing the other one is also happy while we are immersed in our own happy place. -- Added benefit: Duncan has become an even better cook!
And here's a few more things that come to mind:
Guilty pleasures -- Cook-Out Milkshakes and every other week assistance with housecleaning
Tech Support
A good night's sleep is not to be taken for granted anymore.
those grippy hair rollers
Movie nights
Shopping in Cary
Fleece (anything fleece. . . it doesn't get very cold here often, but when it does, I love my fleece!
My multi-talented fiber arts friends
Friends in general, of course.
I'm sure as soon as I hit the "post" button, I will think of important things that should be on the list, but it is time to get ready to go to Thanksgiving Dinner..
"The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."
After years of mom telling me the point of living is not just to "be happy" I find myself, for the first time, -- happy. Content -- OK with it all. And thankful. So it CAN be happy people who are thankful, but I get what they're saying. Thank you Mom.
This year I find myself particularly thankful for:
The courage to change jobs -- again. Knock wood, it seems to be going well.
Something has shifted in me and I've made peace with staying in Charleston longer. Duncan got a boat and I bought a bathing suit somewhere not Costco. Whoo-hoo, at this time of our lives we live at the coast and we're going to make the most of it.
Doors on closets
Teachers
My high-tech achievement of the year -- transitioned to a Mac and a phone that is smarter than me.
My low-tech achievement of the year -- I've learned to knit and am almost done with a "twirly" scarf - a very forgiving 1st project.
Knowing more people who like to play Bananagram
It has been a year relatively free of committee work. That's about to change so I'll take a moment to appreciate it.
Those big things that I've mentioned in years past remain constant -- very thankful for Mom, Duncan, Duncan's job, health insurance, many good and dear friends. Very thankful, these are truly big - really the only things that matter.
I tried to illustrate my list this year with watercolor pencils, and ended up leaving important things off the list. We've enjoyed Tai Chi on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 7 AM (I see my dad shaking his head. . .) and we have jobs and are whole and solvent in all ways. And then, there's Sandy Witman who keeps gently encouraging me to sketch with watercolor pencils. Friends make life good.
This year's big thing is that Debbie died in April, suddenly, unexpectedly, and pretty much inexplicably. Even in that, there are a million tender mercies, circumstances that aligned in the best possible way, people who have been unbelievably kind, an entire family of relatives and friends who have found ways to help each other through. All I will say here is that I am profoundly grateful for her -- for my life as her sister, for the gifts that shone in her, and the good work she did so well in the world.
I am thankful that we now have a President who speaks in complete sentences and paragraphs. I just feel better when the person in charge has a command of the English language.
I have a job, a good job, a fun job, an interesting job. It has a decent salary, health benefits and 401(k) with employer match. Plus free parking. And I can leave it there. When I get home I can “kick off my shoes and waltz around my kitchen singing “I am a piece of work!”
One of the things you miss when you don’t “work outside the home” is – office parties. Where else can you eat brownies and artichoke dip before lunch? In my four short months of employment, I have attended two birthday celebrations and a very elaborate baby shower.
Mom and I traded cars this summer and I now enjoy cruise control and automatic locks.
Maybe the most enduring gift that came this year was when Debbie took Mom and Uncle Bill into a StoryCorps booth in Ashville and got them talking about their memories of growing up and of WWII. We now have a 1-hour CD that is a special, priceless record of family history. I’m also thankful for the afternoon the whole family gathered in Chapel Hill to listen to it for the first time, together.
As always, old and dear friends have been so important. Christy and I got a weekend away this year. I spent several days in Greensboro, staying with Julie Knight and playing mad Banana-gram. I got in an overnight visit with Pat Weathers, and a recent girls’ weekend at LakeGaston with Lee and Kathy – board games also a fun part of that visit. Is there a theme developing here? The miracle, though, was when it finally made it through my thick skull what good friends I have right here in Charleston. Life is good!
We have especially enjoyed the good friendship that has developed over the year with Marcus and DeDee and 2 year-old Fiona. They live very close by and during the summer we got into the nice habit of meeting at the swimming pool after dinner and just floating and talking and playing with Fiona. It was so lovely for all of us and now, I think, we are just all very special to each other. And, there is nothing quite like being special to a 2 year-old.
I bit the bullet and got a real, grown-up cell phone this year and like it more than I thought I would. We’re still holding out on cable, but for entertainment are thankful for CNN.com, Netflix, and Hulu.com -- and friends.
It is Thanksgiving, and impatiens are still blooming in Charlestonand in my yard.
Duncan. I’m eternally thankful for Duncan. He has been patient with and supportive of me in my unemployment, in my grief, and in my incessant travels. He often makes me laugh before breakfast and every time I leave the house he always tells me to “Be careful.” which is his code language for he loves me. Like I said, life is good.
Before we leave Thanksgiving and dive headlong into Christmas, let me just say our Thanksgiving was wonderful this year. We visited lots of family in lots of places, and everyone was pretty much in a good place in their life. Everything was easy and relaxed and we had some wonderful meals, and did not wash dishes but once. We attended the famous Thanksgiving Breakfast at the Pilot, NC Fire Station -- and it was indeed, a great gathering. I enjoyed our somewhat circuitous route through Franklin County Thanksgiving morning. It is pretty and rural through there -- fields and woods going bare with the last remains of fall color -- covered in frost. It reminded me of Grandmother and Granddaddy's and I enjoyed seeing it. Mom and I went shopping on Friday for my birthday and Christmas presents. For my birthday I got a beautiful, beautiful reversible jacket I can wear all year. She picked out one present for me to give to her for Christmas, as well. In the afternoon, we went to see Australia! -- a grand epic tale. On to Winston Salem -- very easy and relaxed time there. I had not been to W-S in I don't know how long and Duncan had never been to Debbie and Wilson's house. I got to see the rug from Grandmother Bowles' living room now in Debbie's living room after being in Uncle Bill's attic for 30+ years. And she has had grandmother's sewing machine cabinet refinished, too. We got to see Jeffrey and Adam, too. It was great. Now, if we can just manage for Christmas to be as warm and comfortable and nice.
That Mom is healthy and doing well. We've come a long way since last year at Thanksgiving when Glenaire had first contacted her about the apartment and I made her cook that all-out holiday dinner and use all the china one last time.
In these uncertain times, for having at least one job between us, health insurance, cars that are paid for and a little money in the bank
For crockpots, ATMs and Pay-at-the Pump gas stations
Gerald's Tire Service
For an incredible view out my window every morning; for the cranes and egrets, but not so much for the racoons
Gas at $1.78/gal
For the constant entertainment, if not the affection, of Eloise
For Duncan's affection which more than makes up for Eloise's lack thereof
Two good women I know beat off breast cancer this year. Yea!
For the loom, the sewing machine, origami paper and my library card
For the fixed heat vent in the bathroom so that now, when we stand at the vanity, heat blows on our feet. Ahhhhh!
For living in a place that doesn't get too cold, too often
For work, when I can get it
Duncan has said over and over that he is thankful he doesn't have to mow the yard anymore
Morning coffee
In the category of "Thankful for small favors" last week a refund check arrived from IRS for our 2006 return in the amount of $1.37
