So Blessed!!!

One of the biggest differences between living in the U.S. and in Canada is the pace at which the holidays come in the fall. The first couple years of living here I found it incredibly strange to celebrate Thanksgiving in early October rather than the end of November...so we just did it twice. This year I found I settled in to the Canadian rhythm and it felt right to celebrate Thanksgiving October 14, especially since we were doing a CEF Fundraiser Banquet and Dessert Auction on November 28, American Thanksgiving. My family in Minnesota is celebrating Thanksgiving today, while we head off to David's extended family's Christmas gathering...it's all the same food and the same intent - a reminder to be thankful for all that God has given us...so it all works out. As we all know, Thanksgiving isn't about a specific day of platitude gratitude but a reminder of how we should live each of our days - with thankfulness...something that too easily escapes me.

As much as I thought I might just shift to complete Canadian style, some things die hard when you grow up with them. So this year, my American Thanksgiving celebration was boiled down to 3 things:
1) Watching a live stream of part of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (no commercials that way either =]) while dancing around trying to entertain a sick baby.
2) Making 2 pumpkin pies- one for the dessert auction and one for us to eat...that's really the best part of the traditional Thanksgiving meal anyways. We'll now have pumpkin pie for a week!
3) Sharing my "5 Thankful Corn" things on facebook today so even though my family may not even know it, I'm partaking in the Nydam tradition.

Since the point of Thanksgiving is to ponder those gifts which we don't always realize we're surrounded by, I thought I'd share a few things I'm thankful for...though the list could go on and on and on and on.