Twelve Days of Thanksgiving: Day 12

Happy Thanksgiving! There are too many things I'm grateful for that I haven't been able to mention, so I'll list as many of them as I can.

I'm grateful for:

• All the little things, like paperclips and pennies and four-leaf clovers.


• The books I've read. From the classics I was "forced" to read in school to the books I'm given to review, reading is a joy I never want to be without.


• My teachers. There are many teachers, both in school and out, who have taught me lessons I will never forget and encouraged me is ways they will never know.


• Talents. So many people have been given so many gifts, and my life is better for all those who have shared their talents with me.


• Time. Time to do more, be better, learn something new. Time to say "I'm sorry" or "I love you" or "Good luck today." Time to enjoy life and live it to the fullest.


• The places I have lived. I am a cheese-head by birth, a city-girl by circumstance, a Cajun by adoption and a lover by location. I have been infected with wanderlust, and I've loved every place I have been blessed enough to live.


• Chocolate and ice cream. I think sugar is a far overlooked food group. Dietitians everywhere are cringing, but chocolate and ice cream have gotten me through a lot of very trying times.


• Friends who know how to listen. This is not a talent of mine--I talk way too much--but I have been the beneficiary of wise friends who know when to close their mouths and open their ears.


• Sisters, both by birth and by choice. I have an older sister who is one of my dearest friends, even if I didn't know it until after high school. And I have three of the best sisters in the world thanks to The Scroll, a children's lit class and a little thing called love.

This list could honestly go on forever. How blessed my life is!

Speaking of blessings, the turkey is now in the oven.


We have people traveling from Michigan and North Carolina, so we're having an early dinner rather than a late lunch. We'll really have a full house with kids and friends and maybe a random stranger or two as well.


I love the holidays!