GRATITUDE!

Today as I cook the small stuffed turkey breast and clean my messy house, I find myself thinking about Thanksgiving Day and what it really means. (For my American cyber-friends - it's our Canadian Thanksgiving weekend).

I used to get so stressed out at Thanksgiving that I didn't enjoy one minute. I'd spend all weekend scouring and cleaning, and cutting and chopping and peeling and cooking, carving the turkey, serving food, then cleaning up some more. I'd have to recuperate all Monday before heading back to work. What kind of fun was that? I wouldn't even have a minute to give thanks for anything (the grumbling overtook everything else).

Even though we now do Thanksgiving differently, (usually we meet in a restaurant for a meal and then come back to my house for my mother's famous pumpkin pie), I still find myself getting a little grumpy. So I decided to take time out to thank God for all the things in my life I'm grateful for.

I'm grateful for ever strengthening relationship with God. I'm grateful for my family (my husband and two great kids), for my health, for my little part-time job which I really enjoy, for my writing, for this beautiful weather we've been having, for my house (even though it's always messy!), for my car with the broken muffler, for this country that offers us every opportunity to do and become whatever we wish, and last but not least, I'm grateful for my friends and all the wonderful people I've met - who've touched my life along the way. I grateful for angels actually, those in bodily form and those in celestial form.

May God bless you and your family on our Canadian thanksgiving. I'm thankful for this concrete reminder to be grateful for every little thing around me. And I'm grateful for YOU!

Happy Thanksgiving!!