Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 9 and 10

Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 9 and 10

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope that you are actually reading this on Friday, after you have successfully stuffed yourself with food on Thursday and so you couldn’t get off the couch, even to read blogs (gasp)! Or maybe it’s Thursday and you are tired of watching your uncle Leo yell at the football game, so you have popped online for a brief respite!

Today marks the last two days of Ten Days of Thanksgiving (inspired by Lisa). It has been fun to do this, both to remember the little things and because it makes me realize how many there are! It was HARD to narrow it down to only 10! I hope that you joined along, whether publicly or privately, and that we all keep remembering to be glad of the little things all year round. Happy Holidays!

And now, numbers 9 and 10!

United Airlines: I have to admit, I sometimes use Delta, but generally United carries me across the nation to see the ones that I love. Be it West or East, United gets me to where I need to go. Luckily I travel a lot for work, so when I want to travel for pleasure, I have a few points saved up for fun! Also, earlier this year when my flight from San Francisco to Sacramento (a 30 minute flight) was delayed for a couple of hours, they gave me a $200 voucher for my troubles. Thanks to United, today I am Back East, celebrating the overeating of turkey and the playing of Pictionary with my friends and family. 

In addition to the United plane seen here, I saw Air Force One in San Francisco!!!

Travel: I am thankful for travel for many different reasons. First, I find that travel broadens the mind and opens up the horizons. No matter if you are going to Missouri or France, you learn something about people, history and landscapes, just from going to a new place. And from there, you may learn something about yourself. Other than that, I am thankful that I get to travel. This year I was lucky enough to go on several trips, including a Round The World trip which ended in May! I also got to spend a lot of time with friends and family, which has been great since I am normally so far away from them!

Going boonie bashing with my parents -- Northern CA

Me and Mark Twain -- Hartford, CT

River Float Trip -- Current River, MO


Drinks at Limon with H -- San Francisco, CA

Grandma S's house -- MA

Fishing with Bro -- Marin County, CA
 
Racing with M -- Newburyport, MA

Me and Dad -- Markleeville, CA

Dancing with Penguins -- KC, MO


A's first birthday -- Sacramento, CA


Road Trip to Reno, NV

Cardinals Game -- St. Louis, MO

NYC, NY with the B's
Meetup with Lisa -- Minneapolis, MN
Raise your glass! A, K and K -- East Bay, CA
 I hope that you are having a great day with YOUR friends and family! Gobble, gobble!

Where have you traveled this year? Do you travel for work or for fun? Do you get to see your friends and family a lot? 
Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 7 and 8

Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 7 and 8


Today we have Days 7 and 8 of the Ten Days (crammed into 4 by me) of Thanksgiving (inspired by Lisa).

#7: Fruit: I eat at least an apple a day, sometimes more. I enjoy pretty much all fruit and am glad that we live in a place where we can get it fresh and juicy no matter what season, although I prefer each fruit in the season where it is ripe. I was lucky this year to catch both blackberry and apple season at home, where we can pick them right off the bush and tree. I also very much enjoyed the blueberries and fresh peaches from the farms in Missouri. 

Saturn peaches

California strawberries

Blueberries are like candy!

Picking blackberries for cobbler

#8: Flour: I know that you already know that I love to bake. Actually I tend to stay away from bread-like items most of the time. However, when I get the chance I do love to throw some flour in with a few eggs and make a muffin or a cookie or bread. So, even though I don’t use it very often, I am thankful for flour and for the baked goods it makes. 

Buttermilk flax muffins

Green Tomato muffins
A Few Other Things I’ve Made Using Flour:

What is your favorite fruit? Is there a good farmer's market near your house? What carb-loaded goodie do you like to splurge on from time to time? 
Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 4, 5 and 6

Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 4, 5 and 6

The list continues! The idea was conceived by Lisa. I am doing the Cliff Note version of her Book, 10 Days of Thanksgiving. Here are numbers four, five and six.

#4: These Legs: In the last 5 months, my legs have successfully carried me hundreds of miles and I want to say, “Thank You Legs, for not giving up out on me”. I am also appreciative of these lungs and this heart. They are hard workers and rarely ever complain. I have been incredibly lucky to be in good health and I realize it may not last forever. I am happy to have it while I do! My grandfather used to say if he had three wishes, they would be: To be Healthy, Wealthy and Wise. I am working on the other two, but the heath thing right now is great!

Hamming it up at the Newburyport Green Stride Half Marathon
#5: Librarians: Thanks to various libraries, I have saved approximately $357.35 on books this year. Not to mention the Audiobooks, DVDs and CDs that I borrowed. I guess the thanks also go to Your Tax Dollars at Work. Thanks to all of you for supporting my book habit in a round-about way. You are contributing to my education and entertainment. Due to a dearth of good books, I have also managed to avoid watching crappy TV. (You can see some of the books I have read this year on my Bookshelf)

My stack of To-Read library books
#6: People Like You: Yes, you. All of you. From people like my Grandma and ST (you know who you are), who never leave comments publicly but always send me notes of encouragement, to people who have never met me before who give advice and antidotes and support. To the runners, the writers, the readers and the everything-in-between-ers. I don’t know where I would be without you all. And to those bloggers who I have met up with, it was like we were old friends, meeting up after a separation. What a great feeling! I can’t wait to meet more old friends!

Blogger Meetup with Raquelita and Lisa in Minneapolis

Do you especially appreciate (or loathe) a particular body part of yours? Do you ever get books from the library? Have you ever met someone you knew from the internet? If so, how did it go? 
Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 1, 2 and 3

Ten Days of Thanksgiving: Days 1, 2 and 3

My friend Lisa is doing a list of 10 things she is thankful for and I thought that was such a great idea. She is actually doing one a day for 10 days, but since I was in questionable internet land, I didn't quite make it on time to do that, so I am going to do my 10 days of Thanksgiving in 4 days this year. Next year I will have to be more organized and make it in 10 days, but for now, this is what we have to work with. You will probably notice that my family and friends will not make it onto this list, but that is only becuase this is a given. Of course I am thankful for them! These 10 things will be more of things that I may not always remember to be thankful for.

So, without further ado, in no particular order, 10 things that I am thankful for, 2 at a time:

#1: Three Grandmas: I am lucky enough to have not one, not two, but three grandmas in my life still. All of them are kind and loving and two of them even know how to use email (which is something to be thankful for in itself!)  I try to see them as much as possible, but they are all busy ladies. Grandma D travels the world and I can never remember if she is in Florida or Spain this winter. Grandma B is an active participant in all the grand children's baseball, football, polo, soccer and hockey games. Grandma S goes to the gym, does volunteer work and makes quilts which are then auctioned off and the proceeds go to charity. They are all still very active!

Gma S and I having drinks on the screen porch by the pond

Gma B and my Bro in San Francisco

Gma D making dinner on a nice summer day
#2: Enough Electronics to Choke a Donkey: I love electronics, but they are not something I really spend money on for myself. I have been very lucky to have people in my life who make it their purpose to keep me in business, electronics-wise. So thanks to my brother, my parents and Mr. L, I am connected with the world, can read, can take photos and can track my running!  Without them I would probably have a free flip phone and a library card and would be running around in circles, lost.

One of my favorite toys

#3: Honorary Nieces and Nephews:  My friends have done me the favor of having kids so I don’t have to. Thanks to them, my Mom has lots of kid’s photos on her fridge. Also this gives me the opportunity to hug and kiss and rile up babies and then hand them back over when I am done. I think really it is a win-win situation overall. So, thanks for getting knocked up girls! You have really done me a favor! 

Little A

Little C
Compiling this list is really a great way to remember how many things there really are to be thankful for! I could probably name hundreds of things. I guess some of them will have to wait for next year! 

Do you still get to see your grandparents? What is your favorite electronic toy? Do you have kids? If not, do you have honorary nieces or nephews? Do you have real ones?
The Act of Giving Thanks

The Act of Giving Thanks


When I was a child, my mother made me write Thank You Notes like there was no Tomorrowto anyone who gave me a gift. After every Christmas, Birthday or Random event, I would sit down with my list and write a note to each person saying thank you for each thing that they gave me. I had to write down each thing, because if you wrote a note to my grandmother saying, “thanks for all the gifts” or, “thanks for the doll” when in fact she gave you a doll AND a necklace, you would get a phone call from Grandma saying, “DIDN’T YOU GET THE NECKLACE I SENT?!”

So I got into the habit of writing Thank You notes. I realize many people never were forcedrequired to do this as a child, so they are not in the habit of doing it as an adult. However, I am of the mindset that a thank you, whether it is verbal, emailed or written in the sky with smoke signals, is warranted, no matter what. If someone gives you a gift, if they take the time to think of you, I think it is only fair to do the same by simply thanking them.

However, this does not always happen. I have sent people gifts and never heard from them. No phone call, no email, no smoke signals. They don’t even mention anything the next time I see them. It’s like it didn’t even happen. Where are their manners? Maybe their mother didn’t teach them to write thank you notes, but weren’t they taught to say thank you if someone gives you something? Don’t you learn this when you are a child? Even at the dentist, after he roots around painfully in your mouth, you say thank you when he gives you the lollypop afterwards. Don’t you?

I would like to blame technology and the internet, but in all actuality, shouldn’t this make it EASIER, not harder, to send a simple note, in the form of a text message, a phone call, or an email (or a tweet or a FB post or…)? Now we have more ways, not less, to say thank you. So why isn’t it happening?

I am appreciative to people who say thanks. So, thank you to all of you who are good at saying thank you! And if you are one of those people that sometimes get too busy to say thank you, maybe you should get off Facebook or Twitter for 27 seconds and send your friend/grandmother/sister a text!

It only takes a minute to say thank you. Not only can it really make someone's day, but I also think it is just plain good manners.

Do you write thank you notes? Do you think that when giving a gift the pleasure of just giving it should be enough? Or would you like to be thanked?