A blog for "Spanksgiving"

Thanksgiving Schmanksgiving. I normally look at this holiday with a mixture of emotions…one, it usually means two paid holidays. Plus one there. Alternately, it’s basically all about food which just doesn’t really do much for me. I mean, I like food. It’s good. But then I’m full and all of this hoopla seems silly. But what I really like about Thanksgiving…when it gets dark and even the biggest scrooges in the world CANNOT DENY THAT IT IS CHRISTMAS TIME AND WE CAN LISTEN TO CHRISTMAS MUSIC AND WATCH CHRISTMAS MOVIES ON THE HALLMARK AND OXYGEN CHANNELS EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. That being said…the idea of giving thanks is a nice one, and probably something that should not be relegated to a single day. So I figure, if I give thanks today, can we just go ahead with Christmas now?

Here are my thanks…
1. I am thankful for Internet Reversi, which gets me through the days when my work day consists of two emails and 7 hours and 50 minutes of headline scanning, Facebook monitoring and Craigslist browsing.

2. I would also like to thank Brandi Carlile for writing songs. She comforts me and validates me and makes me feel like everything is going to be great.

3. I am thankful Dr. Ahmad Hammoud, the man who made me banish the ridiculously dramatic term “Evolutionary Failure” from my vocabulary and from my life. After twenty minutes in his office, he laughed at me and told me he couldn’t wait to deliver my babies. Then he told me what our plan of attack is and showed me this fantastic picture of my ovaries. They are looking great. Sorry. TMI.

4. Every single day, I am so thankful for my job. I’m serious. I am thankful for my job and for my truly fantastic boss and my health insurance and 401k matching and life insurance benefits (which caused Gordon pause…you know, my obsession with “Snapped”…life insurance policies often lead to mysterious deaths...) Anyway. I really love my job and I love having a boss who is not an Ass-Hat, as a previous boss who shall remain unnamed in this cheerful blog. That little jackass has no place in this blog of thankfulness.

5. …And in a separate bullet, all of my peeps and my besties from work. I’m thankful that they still like me when I sometimes only have snide comments to make. Actually. Let’s be honest. Sometimes is a gross understatement. I mean to say that I CONSTANTLY make snide comments.

6. I am also thankful for the elementary-schoolers who cross at the crosswalk in front of me every morning on their way to school. Those adorable little ding-dongs, who usually carry their coats rather than wear them, are inspiring and precious in their enthusiasm for everything.

7. I am very thankful for my pets. You know this already, but in a silly way, they enrich my life in so many ways. They can never get enough love and pets and are always up for a snuggle on the couch. And they make me laugh constantly. And most importantly, their capacity to love is absolutely unparalleled and insatiable.

8. I am also thankful for Frank Sinatra and Will Ferrell, who have both gifted the planet with the funniest Christmas movies in creation and make me almost giddy with Christmas joy.

9. I am very, very thankful to Mother Nature for sending us some GD snow. Finally.

10. So, so, so importantly…I am so desperately thankful for my family, both my biological family and my married-into family. There is nothing in the world like knowing that there are people in the world who are firmly in your corner and they are not going anywhere. You could be the worst person in this whole planet, in the darkest and most lonely place in the universe, in the scariest and worst moment of your life…and you always know that they are there for you, they are pulling for you and wanting the absolute best for you. It physically hurts deep in your chest cavity to love them as much as you do.

11. I’m also thankful for my pink shaker bottle, in which I mix my protein shake every morning. Somehow having a cute pink bottle makes it easier to drink it down.

12. Also, I continue to be thankful for Starbucks and for coffee in general. It seems silly, but words just don’t go far enough in explaining the simple pleasure of a warm, cheerful beverage to warm the hands on a cold morning.

13. I am especially thankful for my house this season as well. We have had a great time working on our house this year, from the landscaping to painting the upper level to re-finishing our basement. Not only has it been fun to see things transformed, it’s also been very bonding for Gordon and I to work on projects together. And some day, we’ll bring our baby home to this little nest that we have created together, just for her.

14. I am thankful to James Taylor for making the best Christmas album ever in the galaxy. Just the sound of his voice singing Christmas songs makes me feel warm and cozy and wintery.

15. Of all the things I could possibly think of to be thankful for, both random and serious, none come close to how thankful I am for my husband. I love him more than anything in this world. He makes me feel happy, loved, safe, confident, and most of all…committed. It’s a wonderful thing to feel so deeply committed to one person. He is truly the other half of me and he is my entire world. I know him so deeply, I know him better than anyone else on Earth. And I love him for every single little part of who he is. And if I didn’t have him, I would truly have nothing at all.