Giving Thanks.....

The weekend before Thanksgiving has its own concerns, unique to itself.  How many people are coming?  Do we have enough chairs?  Who is bringing what, and when are we going to sit down and eat?

I think we have only fourteen this year, but I am notoriously unable to count.  No matter that we count twice, and then a third time, and then set the table with one extra place setting, we are always one short.  I have no idea at all why, or how that's even possible, but it happens every single year.

Our guests range in age from under one to over 90. There is always homemade music, homemade cranberry sauce, and homemade pie.  There are usually two turkeys (one smoked and one roasted) and one ham (Curlygirl HATES turkey).  Dinner begins with a round of thankfulness, each of us telling what we are most thankful for.

One memorable Thanksgiving my Aunt Mary (rest her soul) silenced the room by declaring that there wasn't one single thing she was thankful for!  In rebuttal, we now have a sign hanging in the dining room that says, "There is always, always, ALWAYS something to be thankful for!"

When I began contemplating what I am thankful for I had an 'Aunt Mary' moment.  After all, Babygirl is suffering daily and we don't know why.  And I have nothing to offer her to make it better - nothing at all!  My level of frustration with this is intensely high. 

But this intense level of frustration should in no way make me so ungrateful. 

So here is the start of list of things I am grateful for:

Babygirl has a kidney that works, and isn't on dialysis anymore.
Financially we are much more stable than we were at this time last year.
My family is wonderful, supportive and generous.
(My family includes a large number of people I'm not even related to!)
I have a home, food, clothes, and a job.
I live in a great neighborhood, with great neighbors.
I love turkey, and I'm going to get to eat it for a week.

Eleven more days until the neurology workup.  I'm grateful that it's scheduled.

DeeDee