I like the concept of dedicating a day to give and be thankful.To be thankful and give. A whole day to pause and count up all the wonderful blessings life has tossed my way and to look for ways to give to others…
I also like that as humans our one constant is change. Every year we are different. Every year we bring a new version of ourselves to the literal table.
This year I’ve been plunked down in my California beach hometown to see my kids, grandkids and good good friends. A welcome interruption from my stint in the North East. This unexpected twist has me feeling, you guessed it, intense gratitude!
There’s a grandparent thing that is unexpectedly amazing. It has something to do with the fact that you get to just be yourself and these adorable people LOVE you. From baby to teen, for some odd reason, you show up, and yeah. There are no words for how utterly awesome this phenomenon in itself is.
Our just turned two baby lives near her other set of grandparents, so she sees them often. At one point she realized that there were two of us. Two grandmas! Two! She told everyone. She told both of us. She told it like someone who just realized they won the lottery, twice!
How do babies know that they are this loved and this adored ? How does this same feeling span seamlessly across every age? And here’s another part of the miracle. It’s not dna. G is not my kids dad, but he is absolutely their kid’s grandpa. I know many examples of Grand-parenting where little to no dna is involved. What there is is love. Kids understand that part very well.
Here are a few things I’m feeling tearfully grateful for this year: (besides the miracle of my being here),
A one-on-one game of football using a cornhole bean bag for the ball with the sweetest 9 year old, only boy in the group (who will still slip his hand into mine while we walk and relentlessly try to get a word in edgewise around his hilariously chatty sisters ). It was a serious play-running game that turned into everyone who ‘didn’t want to play’ plus one birthday two year old running and laughing and PLAYING together.
An impromptu tea party with a real China tea set, a not yet two toddler and her dad. Buttered toast cut into lady fingers (four strips) and real tea (herbal of course) many pours and misses into tiny cups. Sweet bliss.
A failing attempt at making gingerbread cookies. Betty Crocker did not have the recipe I used to use .The one we found online was terrible! Such a weird consistency that we decided to make houses. (weird meaning the cookies were reminiscent of building material), so houses of course. Except that constructing three little houses from cookie dough despite looking easy on tictok, we can now tell you it’s not.
Hours later, after falling apart and sagging in and getting covered in frosting (us, the houses the table, the floor…) three little houses made it through the night intact, finally ready to be decorated. Many reasons to laugh here.
A visit with dear friends, a walk on our familiar stretch of beach and yoga classs with all my friends. I brought my seven year old granddaughter along because she was beyond excited to try yoga and certain she would love it. Which she did!
And finally, a full day of hanging out with part of my own little tribe, cooking and eating, playing games and listening to music that we all love. A few silly dance moves and a lot of laughing. Hydration pong (beer pong with water) was quite the hit…
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, I hope you have moments to be thankful for today as well…
Peace Kit 