I love Thanksgiving. Except when it’s over, and I go back to my old ways of not celebrating Thanksgiving every day, like I should.

Because we all should make every day Thanksgiving.

I am so grateful for my sisters. I hope every post in this blog spells that out clearly. I don’t know where I would be, or what I would do without them. I pray I never have to find out. At least, not for a long time.

We had the opportunity to gather once again for Thanksgiving. Our annual tradition for many years was to meet at Gail’s house the Saturday after, but now we have moved it to her daughter’s house. It is the same fun celebration, just a different setting. Our new annual Thanksgiving picture at the bottom of the series above is in our new spot in front of her daughter’s fireplace. May there be many more.

We gathered three days ago as well for our uncle’s funeral in Wichita. It was a beautiful tribute to a long and incredible life, and we were sure to make it an occasion to celebrate. There was a time to mourn, and we observed that as well. But, being the social and fun-loving sisters we are, we tried to bring laughter and smiles as well. As we exited the funeral home, we thanked the three funeral directors for their help, services and kindness, and offered them our services as well: “We put the ‘fun’ in funeral,” we told them. If they needed us to liven up any future memorials, we were the ones to call. They laughed and thanked us for our offer.

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I try to do it every day, some days I miss it. I have no excuse, and it throws my day off if I don’t. I should do it more than once each day, but I call it good with once and try to remember what I wrote.

I keep a gratitude journal. Each entry–hopefully daily, as I said–has to list three new things I have never before written. Some days they come easy, other days I have to stare at the wall and dig deep to find even one thing to write. If, however, I sit for a bit, something always comes to me. I may have to use my imagination, but it always comes. Sometimes I have to turn a negative thing into a positive thing when I’d much rather wallow in the negativity, but this adjustment in my perspective always pays off.

I dug back in several old journals to come up with some examples:

*only one cavity at my dental checkup

*finding leftovers in the freezer

*having running water again after a water main break

*I narrowly missed hitting a deer

*the smell of split pea soup in the crock pot, even though my son says it smells like sadness

*windows that keep the north wind out–not always the case in the farmhouse we grew up in

You get the idea. Of course, Gail and Suzanne probably enjoyed the winter wind blowing through the window in our north bedroom on the farm, as much as they like the wind.

I just stepped outside, and my mind was almost blown by the dual miracles of nature I witnessed:

looking to the west, the splendid sunset defies description,

and the full moon rising in the east always takes my breath–and my words–away.

Larger and less fleeting than that for me, is the fact that in just six days, we will experience the shortest night of the year on the winter solstice. Slowly, incrementally, every day will show us about a minute more of daylight after that. I am solar powered, so even this slow increase in sunlight daily will bring me out of the winter blahs. I am so grateful for that.

Now, to add frosting to my cake, the crazy wind that was blowing earlier is gone.

Sorry Gail and Suzanne. I will always love you both, but I will always hate the wind.

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Happy Thanksgiving every day. And happy winter solstice. And happy full moon.

Thank you all, I am grateful for each of you.