Thankful? You Betcha!

Thought for the day:  In all things, give thanks.  [I Thessalonians 5:18]

And thank you for the cat...

Well, another Thanksgiving has come and gone. Another year in which my major role was to relax, enjoy myself... and play with the grandchildren. (A role I play very well, if I must say so myself.)

Life is good, and I am thankful.

It's sometimes a challenge to be thankful in all things, though, isn't it? Unless you're as courageous as Corrie Ten Boom, the amazing woman I wrote about in last year's post. While imprisoned in a concentration camp, she was humbly thankful for an infestation of fleas. Can you imagine?

As always, we had a lot of things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, and thankfully, not having an infestation of fleas is one of them.

This is our son and his younguns. Aaron's in the back; (wearing an "AWESOME" shirt... which he IS) Jaiden is the 100-watt grinner sporting that stylish off-the-shoulder look; Kymber is the cutie with the super sweet smile; and Devyn is the adorable one-year-old. What's especially nice about this picture is... no one is barfing.

Uh, yeah, no fleas, but a felonious belly bug did  infiltrate our festivities. (We did our darnedest to ignore it, though.)

Kymmie on the backyard playset: "I see you!"

Aaron says, "Me, too!"

It's still hard to believe I was in the delivery room when Devyn made her grand entrance into the world.. and that it's already been more than a year ago.

"Grandma!! Why did you stop pushing us?"

Aaron's petting one of their bunnies. Remember when I told you about them getting the rabbits last year? They got four initially, then got two more. Since then, the other short-haired rabbit ran away, but they still have this black-and-white short-hair, two lion-faced bunnies, and two lops. Amazingly, no babies yet! Can you believe it? However, I observed the lops, um, shall we say ... honeymooning ... quite frequently and enthusiastically while we were there, so that situation may very well be changing in the near future.

Our daughter-in-law made turkey hats for the kids, but this is the only picture I got of one being worn. Jaiden was more into wearing the hat he got at Disney world this summer.



We spotted a lizard in the back yard, which launched the kids into some energetic high-pitched squealing like you wouldn't believe. But I caught him, and let them get a close-up, more relaxed look at him. They even got to see him change color. Cool! And Kymmie, who our son swears is afraid of grass, even held the little guy for a couple minutes. Then we sang a heartfelt rendition of Born Free and let him go. (Okay, okay, so technically, I was the only one singing... picky, picky, picky.)

It was a wonderful visit. The girls did a lot of barfing the day before we got there, but all the kids were mostly okay while we were there. A little more lethargic than usual. More cuddly than usual. More curl up on Grandma's lap and go to sleep than usual.

Then Aaron and our son got sick. And we left. And I got sick.

But ya know what? I'm thankful. What could be better than seeing the looks on their little faces, and hearing those squeals of excitement when they came running out the door to greet me? What could be better than feeling those precious arms around my neck? Than having them squabble over who was gonna sit next to me, and over whose turn it was to sit on my lap? Oh, yes, I'm thankful. Being with them was worth every miserable moment I spent shivering under an afghan after we got home.

Besides, I really needed to lose a few pounds.

Hey, wanta see a really cool adrenaline-pumping video with some gorgeous scenery? (Thanks to my brother Ron for sending it to me.) It's more than enough to sit in the comfort of our own homes and enjoy these thrills vicariously. Seeing such amazing feats is enough to make ya ... thankful.

                                     Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.