Thanksgiving, Cherishing the Past, Embracing Today, and Counting Blessings

Thanksgiving......can it really be?  Where does the time go?  I feel like yesterday it was summer and here we are mid-November.  I woke up in a snow globe four days this week!  Time certainly rushes on while we're busy trying to keep up.  Some days I don't feel like I'm keeping up at all, but lagging behind, breathless and struggling to catch up.  But time waits for no one and believe it or not, here we are at Thanksgiving, at a chilly 16 degrees, leaves floating atop a few inches of snow, Macy's parade on the t.v., Christmas about to barge into place before the turkey leftovers are packed into the fridge.  The last Thanksgiving post I wrote was in 2014.  I re-read that post today, a sort of reminiscent tale of holidays past.   (https://www.lifeasiseeitphotography.net/2014/11/thanksgiving-blessings.html).  And today, four years later, the day, the traditions, continue to change and evolve.  As much as I love everything that awaits me today, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I'd love to go back and enjoy one more of those Thanksgivings of my youth.  I'd love to taste my grandmother's cooking again, and eat hot chestnuts my grandfather peeled for me.  I'd love to listen to the banter among the adults with the wisdom I have today.  Oh how lovely it would be!
We can't go back though.  We can retell the stories and look at photos, but those days are gone and today we make new memories, new traditions, and savor the Thanksgiving of today.  For us that day will be spent down the street at my daughter and son-in-law's home.  My mom will join us and later our daughter, Katie, and her husband and baby Alex will join us for dessert.  I have not spent the week cooking like most.  My bestie, Ann Marie, lives for Thanksgiving.  She loves cooking a full turkey dinner and does so several times a year.  Me....well I did that several years (not with the same enthusiasm as her) but these days and for the past few years, we leave the cooking to the pros.  We order our dinner (and what a dinner it is) from Mazzone Hospitality.   They supply everything to make the perfect Thanksgiving feast, including chopped veggies for turkey soup) and it is delicious and just like my Grams used to be.  I'm tellin' you....it makes the day so easy and is well worth the money to not have to fight the grocery crowds or spend hour after hour in the kitchen.   We'll just gather round, eating, laughing, and counting our blessings and really.....isn't that what today is about?
I have to say, I've always been a pretty grateful person.  I try to not take things for granted, whether it's people or circumstances.  I don't need a holiday for that, but as I was getting ready for the day I was thinking of some of the things I'm especially grateful for this year.  Here are some of them:

• I'm grateful to have such a patient and giving husband who never fails to support my ideas, is always ready at a moment's notice for photo excursions, isn't a traditional meat and potato for supper kinda guy, tells me I'm beautiful with bed head and raccoon eyes, and cheerfully does dishes and laundry while I edit photos and write blog posts.
• I'm grateful for two amazing daughters who have successful careers, beautiful children and wonderful spouses who all live within a mile of us.  
• I'm grateful for three beautiful grandchildren who surpassed my dreams of how wonderful it would be to be a grandma.
• I'm grateful to still have my mom who is healthy and happy and such an inspiration for living life to its fullest.
• I'm grateful to be retired and able to enjoy the fun things in life, even if that means sitting in my window shooting photos of my backyard birds, lingering over my morning coffee, waving to the school bus each morning as my granddaughter goes by.
• I am grateful for those family members no longer with us....their love, their wisdom and their influence shaped me into who I am today.
• I'm grateful to have finally spent the money to fix some annoying but not life-or-death issues at home and finally have enough outlets in the bathroom, can turn the light on without the fan coming on, have a bathtub faucet that is easy to adjust without going from scalding hot to freezing cold in a millimeter of a turn.  Oh, it's the little things that make me happy!
• I'm grateful to have found a church that feels like home and a God who loves me.
• I'm grateful to have things in life that excite me and remind me that while a perfectly kept house is nice, there's more to life than chores and to-do lists.
• I'm grateful I was raised to have an open heart to love people, to trust and to care.  I'm grateful to be trusting and appreciative and willing to forgive and move forward.
• I'm grateful for all of you who are so supportive of this blog, enjoy my photos and take the time to tell me or click 'like'.  

I could go on and on, but these are the big things at the top of my list today.  I am extremely blessed in life, for sure way more than I deserve.  I don't take any of it for granted.  On this day of giving thanks, I hope that each of you have a long list of blessings that make your heart full, that you are surrounded by people you love, and that your day is full of good food, and traditions, old and new.  Happy Thanksgiving!

The loves of my life!