Thankful

I didn't take many pictures on Thanksgiving.

And the ones I did take were on the run, and didn't come out too well. 

But, the lack of good pictures doesn't reflect how thankful I am for everything that I have.

And Thanksgiving season (even tho it is December tomorrow) seems to be the right time to think about these things that we are blessed with and by.

[Taylor did a lovely post today on being thankful. You can read it here. You can also see her wonderful pictures about our pre-Thanksgiving preparations here. Lyndsay also has some great pictures of our Thanksgiving festivities here.]

First a few pictures...

I am thankful:

• I am thankful that all 3 of my children and my wonderful son in law and my two favorite cousins all stayed with us for several nights. Even though I had peace and quiet when they left, I missed everyone enough on Monday that I was tearful thinking about them.
• I am thankful that I had a grandmother, Hannah, aka "Grammy", who passed on not only food legacies, {I made her cranberry bread recipe for Thanksgiving [which she always made on holidays] and my cousin Mary made her pecan pie recipe} but also passed on her amazing Irish genes [along with my grandfather] to her two lovely daughters (and one bachelor son) who birthed 10 amazing grandchildren for Hannah. Those two daughters, and seven of those grandchildren were together for Thanksgiving dinner last week, along with fourteen of Hannah's equally amazing great grandchildren. She would have been so proud.
• I am thankful for my dear mother, Alice, [aka Dabi] Hannah's daughter, and her sister Maryann, who together organized this Thanksgiving dinner and were instrumental in getting all of us together. These are the cousins we played with as kids, and it was wonderful to catch up and watch our kids begin a friendship with their cousins.
• I am thankful for the friends that my children brought home over the Thanksgiving break.
• I am thankful for my darling husband, Jim, who worked tirelessly all day on Wednesday cooking and cleaning, and on Thanksgiving--cooking, cleaning, transporting, running endless errands, and spearheading the clean up crew. You are one awesome dude, honey :)
• I am thankful for homemade turkey soup.
• I am thankful for all the help that my children provided, both with cooking and cleaning up and helping Dabi...you guys made me proud!
• I am thankful for my sisters and brother, and my nieces and nephew who helped out so much too--both with cooking delicious food, eating with relish! and helping to clean up with hardly a complaint.
• I am thankful that Christmas is right around the corner and I will get to see lots of these very loved (and very missed) family members again very very soon. 
• A quote:

Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow. 

Edward Sandford Martin