Grateful Friday

 Today I give thanks for...

These turkeys. Thanksgiving was not what we planned and hoped for this year, but we still had a festive, memorable, delicious day.

My Dad and Judy spent days preparing their traditional feast and then portioned them out, placed them in pretty baskets, tied them with bows and delivered them ready to reheat. #foodislove. 

Happy hygge. Today I woke up ready to start decorating. I'm feeling like less is more this year, but I might change my mind. My dining room tree is in its glory. The living room tree is in the garage. The guys got the boughs lit and hung out front. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Simplicity. There's been a consensus on both sides of the family to forgo gift giving and instead donate our resources to those in need. This year, that feels like the right thing to do. I'm sure there'll still be little gifts and white elephant gifts and we will all count our blessings.

Scattegories. We played it after dinner last night. It was a fun change from our standbys.

A little cyber Black Friday Christmas shopping today.

St. Nick comes next week. I have more fun with filling the stockings than any other seasonal gift giving.

Lils and I had a nice girls weekend while Mike was at deer camp. We spent mucho time together watching movies, cooking, walking, and editing her definition essay. 

Sticktoitness. The editing wasn't really fun, but I witnessed Lily completely rewrite her essay three times. The third time was the charm. Her essay was strong, compelling and some of her best work.

Pivoting. We're all doing a lot of that these days.

A new painting for the family room. Next up are floors and then furniture. It's long overdue. When we moved into this house 15 years ago, we bought five year furniture.

Tickets for mass again this week.

Irish cream. Homemade.

Neighbors who deliver a fresh loaf of pumpkin bread for your Thanksgiving breakfast.

Friends who drop off your mom's pumpkin bars for your dessert. #foodismemories.

Orange poinsettias. Thank you Ashley.

An overdue haircut.

A full house again.