Happy Thanksgiving

One of my good friends hosts an amazing Thanksgiving event (I’d say dinner but it’s more than that) at her home for select friends and family. I am blessed to have been on her invitation list for the last 5 years or more. I’ve missed a few due to my travel schedule, and one year where her family all got knocked down by the flu, but most years in recent memory I’ve been lucky to spend it with people who’ve come to feel like family. And Thanksgiving is my friend’s favorite holiday so she goes all out, and then assigns tasks – mine is wine! Easy and fun. One person goes to Alaska every year to catch Salmon, and one of them will surely be served up. I have been looking forward to today for months! It’s going to be great.

It’s Thanksgiving, so I have gratitude on my mind. It’s so easy to complain – example Tuesday we had a record breaking amount of snow for November in Denver. The storm stopped at about noon. Our HOA’s snowplow vendor didn’t show up to clear sidewalks and driveways until about 10:30 p.m. when I was trying to sleep. But let’s be clear, unlike some of my coworkers who had to shovel out 18+ inches of snow by hand, I didn’t have to shovel at all. And I even went out Tuesday late afternoon to catch a hot yoga class – my car is AWD so was able to just get over and through the uncleared snow. I have a lot to be grateful for.

So, in honor of Thanksgiving, in addition to the amazing meal later today, here’s my gratitude list for the week:

• My hot yoga studio is doing one class at 9 a.m. for Thanksgiving – I will be there. We’re always jammed in like sardines but it’s great fun to hit the big holiday classes (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years).
• With the holiday and snow schedule I am grateful that I was able to take hot yoga classes with 2 of my favorite teachers (Kat & Leonard) this week whose teaching schedules generally never fit my work schedule.
• My boss closed the office early on Wednesday. Similarly, we got to work from home during the big snow storm Tuesday. I didn’t expect any sort of work break for the week except on Thanksgiving day, so these were wonderful surprises.
• My sister in law invited me to a very erudite event in December. I’ll be honest, I’m too shallow for that event. I’ll read poems that my friends make, but going to a scholarly event when I’m going to be in Maui for less than 72 hours? I’d rather run the beach, and watch sunrises and sunsets, try to get my sister in law to take me outrigger canoeing, and maybe watch my brother do his thing on his paddle board. But, and, also, I’m delighted and grateful that she thought it was something I might like/get something from. Maybe one of these years!
• I had dinner this past week, twice even, with someone that I’d like to know better on a lot of levels. I am grateful to have crossed paths with someone, who inspires that feeling in me.
• I work with fantastic people. We’ve also had some amazing new people join the team recently. I cannot express how grateful I am for this.
• I am grateful to be part of WiseWomen. I’ve written about them before, but I feel so blessed to be a part of the WiseWomen community.

There’s plenty more on my list, but that should do it for now. How about you? What are you grateful for? Favorite Thanksgiving Day tradition?

Day 25, #BlogPals2019