Thankful for Just about Everything

It's official: Thanksgiving is once again my favorite holiday. Well, for the moment. We haven't had Christmas in our new place in Rochelle yet, so check back with me after that. It's hard to know how having the Whos' Christmas tree in my yard will impact that holiday season.

Today, in celebration of our first Thanksgiving "back home", Tori and I stayed put. We didn't go to anyone's house; we didn't have anyone over. We cooked a little turkey in our kitchen (in Rochelle) and Tori made an elaborate fruit salad and we ate dinner and watched A Christmas Carol and went for a long walk around our neighborhood to look at Christmas lights and played with the dog and played a game of Scrabble, and...well, you get the idea.

And when the song about how "this is how life should be" broke out, I couldn't have agreed more.

So here's the short list; there's definitely more, but a little Yorkie dog who's high on the list is waiting for a last walk before bed, so I'll try to keep it reasonable:

• All of the friends who have, in different ways, ensured that I haven't been alone in the many years I've been a single mother. They are legion, but I am especially thankful for Margo, Jo Ann, Barb, Todd, Mike, Don, Judy and Andrew. I think about you guys every day.
• My totally amazing daughter, who makes everything fun and inspirational.
• The other children who still let me be their stepmother many years after the separation (and the next generation that came with them...have I told you all that my grandson is coming to stay with me next week?)
• Little Yorkie dogs...one in particular :)
• Rochelle
• Being in Rochelle
• How happy Tori is to be in Rochelle
• The people in Rochelle
• The way downtown Rochelle could easily be mistaken for Bedford Falls
• The big windows and sunlight and clean whiteness and light wood floors in our townhouse
• The fact that we're solvent (so far) even though I'm unemployed
• The fact that I have had so much flexibility in the way we build our lives and I get to balance being a parent and supporting my kid
  
• The many amazing people I came to know in the job I recently left and what I learned from them
• The opportunity to put my skills to work for the forces of good

Yeah, I'm not even close to done. But Jake is threatening to leave the list and become someone I have to clean up after if I don't cut this short, so I'll leave it at that for now.