Gratitude

I am home, alone on a Saturday night.

That might not seem so exciting, but after a few days of family and friends and cooking and eating and talking, the quiet is divine. And after doing some of the things that I have been wanting to do, plus some of things that I needed to do, I realized that I should have just tried to close my eyes and sleep. And just as I am about to try to...

I am reminded that in fact I am not alone - for there is this little person asleep in the other room - a little person who has in the last few days had many firsts: first turkey eating, first belly scooting down the hallway, first standing hands free, first finger food and first time on the slide at the playground. Its no wonder that when we got home this afternoon he conked out on the big pillow on our bed like I have never seen him before.

So for this first Thanksgiving for us as a clan of three - I am gratful for family naps. I am grateful for the silence and stillness that follows the boisterous and lively time spent with grandmas and uncles and friends, new and old. I am grateful for the brother who cooked and for the friend who cleaned up. I am grateful for makeshift tables and mismatched dishes and left-over pumpkin pie. I am grateful for I am grateful for dishwashers and toaster-ovens. I am grateful for Skpe and video calls. But mostly, I am grateful, that we were together.