Giving of Thanks

I'm the first one awake in my house.  I've got a cup of tea next to me, warm sheepskin boots on my feet, the fire is crackling away in the fireplace and Nat King Cole is softly crooning The Christmas Song thanks to a little Holiday Pandora.

It's Thanksgiving today, lovers.   I've woken up early because the responsibility of our yearly tradition of Sticky Buns on Thanksgiving Morning was given to me this year, or rather, I took the responsibility upon myself.  I wanted to make sure they got made this year.  You see, we're being all sorts of untraditional this year and instead of having the normal 20-30 people at our house for the world's best homemade Thanksgiving dinner, we're not cooking anything.  Except for the Sticky Buns.  We're going out to dinner tonight, to a beautiful restaurant by the Columbia River called Salty's.  Bottomless champagne, an all-you-can-eat Thanksgiving Buffet, and world class views of one of this country's most stunning rivers.  I'm desperately looking forward to the buckets of iced crab legs that will be floating around like jars of savory, spidery fairy dust. I won't even mention the crab and lobster mac-and-cheese on the menu, or the three different types of stuffing for the cider-roasted turkey.  I'm excited for something a little different, this year, if you can't tell, and the diehard foodie in my is, well, dying to be the patron of a blissful food-induced coma after dinner.

That's not what this post was supposed to be about, though.  As I sit here waiting for the sticky buns to come to room temperature so I can put them in the oven and fill the house with warm, cinnamony, buttery smells, I've been thinking a lot about gratitude, and why it is that we set aside one day every year to be thankful for the blessings we've been given.

I've been severely blessed by many wonderful and beautiful things and people in my life, and something about Frank Sinatra singing Christmas songs just makes you all sorts of weepy and emotional, so here I go.

Here's my grown-up (but not too grown-up) Thanksgiving list:

• I'm thankful for the wonderful and comforting God-fearing family that our Father has placed me in.  We've been through so much together, and every year brings new trials and tribulations for us all.  Yet He is faithful to us, and He heals and guides and loves us, and brings us closer in new ways every day.  Something that sometimes, feels absolutely impossible.
  
• I'm thankful for the faithful and loving friends that light up my life.  Friends that do their absolute best to understand me and love me even when they don't succeed in understanding my trivialities, and also when I don't deserve to be loved.
  
  
• I'm thankful for the beautiful home that I've lived in for the past five years, and all the beautiful homes I  lived in before this one.  Thankful for electricity and running water and gas stoves, and also the usage of my beautiful and striking Vitamix juicer.
  
  
• I'm thankful for the passions that God has given me.  I'm thankful for the world of literature, and art, and great feeling.  I'm thankful for writing, without which I would be obtuse and deficient.  I'm thankful for music, and the way it can change the world.  I'm thankful for cooking, and the comfort it brings.
  
  
• I'm thankful for my possessions.  I'm thankful for my astounding and cherished collection of books.  My three beautiful guitars.  My frustrating, yet worthy laptop.  My inspiring typewriter.  My picture frames filled with incandescent memories.  My framed posters of Audrey Hepburn and the Beatles... and that one framed black and white movie photograph of Michael Corleone that my father sinfully covets everytime he comes into my room. :)
  
  
• I'm thankful for my Cerebral Cortex, and the association it has with keeping and storing memories.  I'm thankful for having a healthy Cerebral Cortex, and I'm thankful for every one of those irreplaceable memories.
  
  
• I'm thankful for the dreams I've been blessed with.  I'm thankful for who they shape me to be, and the determination they foster with love and nurture with care.
  
  
• I'm thankful for this beautiful and hopeful world I live in.  I'm thankful for the faith I have in the good of humanity, and I'm thankful for the united strive towards Peace that people share.
  
  
• I'm thankful for Oregon and the freedom to be strange and unusual and individual, and also be accepted for all of those things.
  
  
• I'm thankful for Disney films, and lastly, I'm thankful for Bon Jovi.   

And no, that is not all that I am thankful for, but I'm pretty sure that sums up most of my life fairly well.

My greatest wishes and blessings to you and yours this wonderful Holiday, and the rest of this beloved Holiday season.


Wishing you all the stuffing, sweet potatoes and floating crab legs in the world,

Xx,

Hannah