Day # 30

I made it! Thirty days of thankfulness!  Tonight, I am thankful that tomorrow is the beginning of December, the most fun month of the year!  My son is so excited about Christmas and I am equally as excited to share everything about Christmas with him.  I am looking forward to decorating our tree, going to look at Christmas lights, making cookies for Santa, everything!!  Brody looks at everything with his eyes wide open and so innocently.  There are no signs of regret or sadness.  I get a little envious sometimes when I see the pureness in his eyes because I would do anything to be that free and peaceful again.  He talks about Rudolph and Santa like he has known them for years and he believes in them whole heartedly.  It's just so sweet.  It reminds me of this song....."Don't ever grow up" by Taylor Swift.  I just heard this song for the first time yesterday.  I could relate as a woman...and I could relate as a mother....

http://youtu.be/da0JBKlyu8Q

Day # 29

Today I am thankful that this month is almost over, because I've got to hand it to you, posting something every day has been a challenge!  But it did make me stop for just a bit to think about what I am thankful for and for that in itself I am thankful.  There were many things that I thought of that I didn't post about but I did realize that I appreciate them none the less. 

I'm learning that you truly never know what the future holds, you just have to have faith.  I'm not too proud to admit that I've lost faith from time to time, but something always happens that tends to pull me back around.  I believe in fate and believe that God surrounds you with exactly the people that you need in your life at exactly the time you need them. I am so thankful for my family, that supports me and loves without judgement and friends that are as equal in my heart as my family.  Even on my worse day, things could always be much worse......I am completely thankful that they are not....

Day # 28

There is no time that my world is more at peace than when my son is asleep in my arms. I know there will come a day when the sound of my heartbeat will not send my son off to his slumber.  And though at times it seems as a burden, having to lay with him for him to sleep, I know one day that all will end.  As I reflect on the past few years, how he is ever changing, how fast this life is moving by, I realize that in just a few short years I will be saying how I wished he would let me hold him in my arms, how I wish that he could fit in my arms again.  Today I am so thankful for these moments as a mother that only I can share with my son.

Day # 27

Today I am thankful for two things....first thing I am thankful for the beautiful weather this weekend, because I was able to get my Christmas decorations put up outside and that totally made Brody's weekend!

Secondly, I am thankful that I only spent $8.00 on this gingerbread house....it looked great in the beginning, but then slowly it all started sliding apart.  Plus, Brody kept eating all the candy and that's never a good idea.  Brody was happy with our gingerbread house and that is really all that matters.

Day # 26

Today I am thankful for the time that I got to spend with my nieces, Eve & Molly, this evening at dinner.  It's just amazes me how quickly they have grown from little toddlers to teenagers.  They used to talk about the Littlest Pet Shop animals and now they talk about boys and bullies.  They have grown into sweet, loving young ladies and I am so proud of them both.  It frightens me to think of the speed in which it seems they have matured into young ladies when I relate it to my son.  Right now he is so excited about Santa Claus and snow and to think of him being their age in the short time it seemed to have taken the girls to get there....terrifies me.  It seems like I was just at my nieces first birthday party, seems like Brody was just born, seems like I was just a child myself, excited for Santa to come.  In this fast paced world...I'm thankful for realizing you have got to slow down and notice the world that is growing right in front of your eyes.

Day # 25

Today, I am thankful for this little spot of sunshine.....

Day # 24

Today I am thankful for on-line shopping because there is no way I would ever be camping out at Best-Buy (or any store for that matter) for just the chance to possibly save money on a t.v.!  Being snuggled up on the couch in my pajamas watching Elf is much more appealing that strong arming a bunch of crazed holiday shoppers!  Unless they were giving away a complete installation of a movie theatre in my home or a brand new house or my son's college tuition....no way I'm standing in line for hours.

Day # 23

Most of my childhood holiday memories are of shifting between two places for the holidays.  The day after I graduated high school I left home only to be taken in by my husband's grandparents.  His Grandmama wasn't your average, sweet, fragile grandmother.  She had spunk and was as honest as the day was long.  If you got a hair cut and she didn't like it...she would tell you.  If you got two helpings of dessert...she would tell you exactly where on your body that dessert was going to land.  She was brutally honest at times but at others she was the mother I needed. 
She loved most to cook for her family, especially at the holidays.  She invited me into her kitchen so many years ago to help her prepare the holiday meal for her family, teaching me her ways of setting the table, arranging dishes, etc.  It was a task I didn't take lightly and every holiday after that I was her comrade in arms. Every holiday, dancing around each other in the kitchen, smiling with pride as everyone settled into their over flowing plates of food.  Grandaddy would come in to carve the ham or turkey and he would slip me a piece that "didn't look that good" and we would laugh with our cheeks full of meat while Grandmama yelled at us for sneaking.  We both cried the morning she handed me the electric knife to carve the turkey after Grandaddy passed away a few weeks before Thanksgiving.
 
I came to cherish that time, just with her, in the kitchen doing what she loved best.  It reminded me of being in the kitchen with my Granny as a child, helping her cook.  My Granny was more advanced in age when I became an adult but she instilled the love of cooking in me at an early age and it was nice to get to continue that on with Grandmama.  It is especially hard now, going to her home, empty and cold, preparing the table settings and the food with out her there.  This is only the second holiday without her and I am finding that I am missing her terribly.  We didn't always have the best relationship, but we were always smiling and laughing together in the kitchen for the holidays.  So today I am most thankful for all those years, all the holidays I got to spend with Grandmama in the kitchen, just us two.

Day # 22

Today I realized that one year tomorrow one of my dearest high school friends was killed in a car accident.  She was one of my best friends from the minute I started high school.  We learned to drive together, sneak out together, went to prom together, cheered together, graduated together....everything about high school that was fun, Denise was there, in every memory.  She was always positive, always laughing, always smiling, that was just Denise.  It was such a tragedy that her life was taken so young, so quickly, so unexpectedly.  She was married and a mother, I was completely devastated to think about their loss.  It's hard to believe that it's been a year already.  I think about her family, her parents, her husband, her children with a heavy heart this Thanksgiving.  So today, I am thankful for the all years, the laughs, the memories I shared with Denise....my high school experience would not have been the same without her.

Day # 21

Today I am thankful for my son's unique way of making a song his own......

"You better watch out....you better not cry....bum bum bum, and a rum a tum tum....Santa Claus is coming to town.....He knows when you've been good.....He knows when you've been bad....so you better be good or he will spank you...for goodness sake."