It's Gobbles Time!: Thanks and Thanks and Thankgiving Weekend

It's been over a month since my last post, and I have about 6 drafts halfway done waiting to be published. But I thought I'll catch up first since it's still within a week from Thanksgiving and post about that first.

I went to church on Sunday. Three days after Thanksgiving, I still felt I needed an outlet for all of the gratitude I felt for where I was at that moment, on what had dramatically changed over the last year. With hubs working over 100 hours a week for the three weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and the stress everyday life boiling over while preparing the house for its first hosting gig under our ownership, I kind of lost sight of the big picture. So I took Gobbles with the promise of a trip to the grocery store for good behavior and left hubs home to relax with the napping Lobster Roll.

I felt so calm after spending an hour with my angelically behaved son (did I mention there were m&m's on the line at the reward trip to the grocery store? now it makes sense), I was so glad I'd been able to just listen to the sermon and let my mind focus on my family, and really just how appreciative I should be.

This year hubs and I prepared and cooked the Thanksgiving meal over a three day span - the turkey went into a brine on Tuesday, we made the butternut squash pumpkin soup as well as prepped the stuffing on Wednesday, then made bread and mashed potatoes Thursday morning, cooking the turkey, stuffing, mashers, greens, and reheating soup in the hours leading up to our old man happy hour dinner time of 4:00. We marvelled at the ease in which we were able to do this since 1) we have an extra fridge in the garage to hold all the prepared food and brined turkey, (and beer!) 2) we had COUNTER SPACE and a kitchen table to lay out and do what we wanted without having to put everything away after every step 3) we were able to keep an eye on the kids in the family room right next to the kitchen while we did all this prepping, and when they wandered into the kitchen there was room for them to hang out without us stepping on them, and 4)guests were allowed to hang out in the kitchen because it was bigger than cubicle sized kitchen we used to have (a small cubicle, including all the appliances!). This time last year, there was absolutely no hope of a new house, a bigger kitchen, we were just dead in the water with showing after showing, and we had been talking about a date to suck it up and build onto our tiny house. I'm so so thankful that we didn't give up because this property is perfect for our family.

And even bigger than the house - I'm so grateful to have celebrated the Lil Lobster Roll's first thanksgiving! Obviously we knew about her at Thanksgiving last year, but this little girl has no idea of the positive impact she's made on our family - her brother, her daddy, and our relationship with each other. My baby girl (and my baby boy - his 3rd thanksgiving, wow!) are the most wonderful little blessings I could imagine.

I guess I have to say 2012 was my lucky year, because after a new baby and a new house, what more could anyone want? Sometimes I need to pinch myself when I walk into work in the morning because of how much I love it. The respect I get, flexibility I need, and the extraordinary people who are all genuinely nice make me look forward to going in every morning. I decided to make a move to this job because I didn't want to have to fight a corporate ladder, just do my job, and this place has me writing expertise articles for our publication. It's amazing the opportunities that come about when you're not even looking.

Usually my Thanksgiving lists comprise of big and small, but this year I need to step back and keep my eyes on the big, because for some reason I'd been letting the small stuff get me down. I'm taking a month off from the diet and not even worrying about the scale, because I know my best success always comes in January anyway - so why sweat it? There are much more important things to worry about and be grateful for. In the next 8 weeks we'll be decorating our new home for Christmas, celebrating 7 years of wedded bliss, going out to Gobble's birthday party with all of his school friends, riding the Santa train to keep in the spirit, celebrating the holiday through the eyes of a 3 year old who actually knows what's going on now, and preparing for the Lobster Roll's first birthday bash. It's such a busy, happy time for my family, and I am so grateful for it all... done sweating the small stuff!

And with that, a LONG weekend's worth of fun!