A Word of Gratitude

Today, on the biggest food day of the year, there will be no recipes and no amateurish pictures of the food that regularly graces our table. Instead, I just wanted to share a short (and very incomplete) list of some of things that I am most grateful for:

• I am ever grateful to God, who has granted me life, and who blesses that life on a daily basis.
• I am grateful for an amazing husband, who loves and supports me in all of my adventures, and who has never, in 20 years of marriage, uttered a single derogatory or demeaning comment to me. I love you Brian!
• I am grateful for 5 wonderful children, who teach me far more than I could ever teach them.
• I am grateful to be a full-time Mom. This has provided me more joy in my life than I could have ever imagined!
• I am grateful, again, for a husband who works so hard so that I am able to be that full-time Mom.
• I am grateful for the knowledge that families can be together forever, and that I will always be that full-time Mom.
• I am grateful for the family that raised me and who continue to teach and support me. I have terrific parents and sisters that are a constant source of blessings to me.
• I am grateful for a country where I am free to worship as I believe, participate in the democratic process, have opportunity to make my own way in the world, and the freedom to write a silly-little food blog.
• I am grateful for the armed forces who established and maintain that freedom for me at the risk of their lives, and for very little reward. Extreme gratitude also to all of their families for their many sacrifices.
• I am grateful for amazing friends who share daily in my joys and sorrows and are a constant source of strength.
• I am grateful for the far-away friends that I have made across the seven states and four countries where I have lived, for long or short periods of time. You have helped to shape me into the person that I have become today.
• I am grateful for the opportunity to serve others, because I always receive so much more in return.
• I am grateful for the bounty of the earth that allows me to experiment and play with my food!

On this Thanksgiving day, I hope that your turkey is moist and your plates are full, and that you are surrounded by people that you love. Most of all, I hope that you have as much to be grateful for in your life as I do in mine. My best wishes for a gratitude-filled day of Thanks.