Hot to trot on Thanksgiving

Have I ever told you guys how much I love Thanksgiving? It is my absolute favorite holiday of the year. Turkey, football, wine and family…I can’t wait! I look forward to it every year almost as much as an eight year old does Christmas morning.

This year I am hoping to partake in the Drumstck Dash prior to stuffing my face with Turkey and wine. It’s a local 5K race. I don’t run. I hate to run. But I signed up for the 2011 Mini Marathon that takes place in May and I need to get my ass into shape sooner rather than later, right? It’s only going to be thirty-five degrees windy and rainy on Thanksgiving. I’m predicting some major huffing on the inhaler and a bout with bronchitis next week.

Good times!

And then once I finish the run I will huff it over to the other side of town for a delicious dinner with my mom’s side of the family. My dad usually goes to my brother’s house, but I don’t want to balk tradition. Spending Thanksgiving with my mom’s side of the family is a tradition that was started before I was even born, and I plan to stick with this tradition until I die. My grandma just turned 92 and I love spending time with her. I think my dad gets frustrated that I don’t spend Thanksgiving with him and my brothers in-laws, but I just never know when it will be my grandmas last Thanksgiving, and I want to enjoy her as much as I can.

So I’m sticking with tradition!

I will end the afternoon with my absolute favorite tradition. Yep, you guessed it, NAPTIME! Care to join me?

The only thing that I hate about this holiday is that I usually don’t get time with my kids, but I’m ok with that.

Now, let me explain.

I could ask my ex for time with our kids on Thanksgiving and he would happily obliges, but he gets so little time with them because of his crazy work schedule. So I try to accommodate him when I can. Thursday’s are his days to spend the entire day with Hamilton and Gibson. He looks forward to it. My kids look forward to it.

Again, why mess with tradition? It's just one day...

As we approach this Thanksgiving, I am reminded yet again of how lucky I am for all of the other wonderful things, besides my family, that I have in my life.

Things like:

1. Showers. I know it’s strange, but that’s often where I get my best ideas.

2. The entire frozen food section at Trader Joes.

3. Modern plumbing, bathrooms and toilet paper…enough said!

4. Being able to appreciate the weird things that people do. Yesterday on my way to work I saw a guy dressed in a banana costume in the car next to me…it made me giggle.

5. Unexpected text messages, they usually brighten my day.

6. When the batteries die in noisy toys.

7. Being felt up by a TSA agent on my way out of town…hey, I’m single, I will take what I can get.

8. The moment I realized that I have no idea what I did before the Internet.

9. When someone else makes me a salad…they just aren’t the same when I make them.

10. That I still have what I like to call “dreamers disease”.

11. Real life conversations.

12. Moments when I have the clarity of thought to acknowledge that I can’t control what happens in my life– only how I react to what happens, hence my post yesterday.

13. Twizzlers.

14. Freshly sharpened #2 pencils.

15. That the turkey isn’t our National bird

16. The snuggie. I know it’s cheesy, but it sure keeps me toasty! Maybe I will wrap up in that for the Drumstick Dash…

17. Expensive jeans..

18. The laughter of my kids.

19. Contact lenses…one day of wearing my glasses this week and I’m already going nuts.

20. 80’s music. Is there any other kind?

21. Logic.

22. Mad Libs with my kids.

23. Fresh flowers for no reason at all.

24. The ability to forget those few extra pounds, because according to my kids, it’s those few pounds that make me so cuddly.

25. My future.

Happy Thanksgiving…Gobble! Gobble!