Merci Pour Tout

What up y'all? I'm just sitting here at my desk feeling giddy and getting ready to do a bunch of work before I can go home and receive my family. The day before Thanksgiving is possibly my favorite day of the year, better than the day itself. What can I say, I am a great fan of anticipation.

I try to be mindful, and to take time out of every day to appreciate my beautiful life, but it doesn't hurt to take stock and make a big deal out of it once a year. So without further ado, a list of things for which I am currently most grateful:

-My heroine, Patti Smith, won a National Book Award

-HR's big enough that we can do side-lying nursing in the early mornings and it often buys us another hour-plus of sleep, not to mention cozy family-bed time

-Delicious, delicious coffee

-I have a lot of friends in the world and though I could be lots better about letting them know, I cherish them beyond words. You know who you are!

-Hosting the dinner means I don't have to travel

-It's clementine season

-There's so much quality fiction out there to surprise and move me again and again, the latest culprit: Emma Donaghue's Room

-The tangible security I take for granted: a great stable job, a warm comfortable house and nourishing food

-The intangibles: good health for myself, and most of my loved ones. Good medical care, and hope, for those who aren't as healthy. The fantabulous luck to have been born into my family--every member of whom is a gem in her or his own right--and to have married into one I adore just as much. A pretty awesome marriage, while we're on the subject, after all these years. And let's not forget love in general, which seems the simplest thing, but the importance of it can never be overstated

-A vibrant passion for all kinds of art and beauty in the world that I hope to pass on

-Music, of course: Florence and the Machine, Jay-Z, Neil Young, Duran Duran, Jimmie Rodgers, The Rolling Stones, and so on and so on. So good for dancing, so good for life

-Naturally I must wrap up with the highlight of 2010 for me, which I venture will be the highlight of every year hereafter: my happy, healthy, gorgeous, growing baby. He may still wake in the night, and rail against his carseat and stroller with fiery demon hatred, but he's a cuddle monster with the most beautiful toothless smile and my love for him knocks me over on a daily basis. He's the best best reason I've ever had to be thankful.




Happy Thanksgiving 2010!