30 Days of Giving Thanks-November 25-30-Catching Up

Wow! I have really fallen behind with these posts and I apologize! I think about posting every day, I just don't always get to do it! I'm sure many of you know what that's like. So now, before the month runs out, I'm going to post some brief thankfulnesses LOL! Thankfuls? Thankses LOL! OK, enough making up words.

November 25 - Today I am thankful for butterflies! These harbingers of spring and summer are a favorite of mine and I love when I first see them visit our yard. It means that warm weather is on the way, along with flowers and blooming bushes and trees! I really enjoy watching them flit around. They always appear to be so happy!

November 26 - Today I am thankful for scented candles. Not only do I love candles for the lovely light they provide, but when scented, they make me extra happy! The scents I enjoy often depend upon the time of year. In the warmer months, I enjoy light fragrances like vanilla and lilac. They seem to go along with the relaxed mood of summer months, the longer days and the refreshed feeling I get when I can open the windows and enjoy the breeze. In fall, spiced pumpkin is always a favorite. This lovely scent evokes thoughts of snuggling underneath a woolly blanket, the feel of the season's first chilly evening and the fun of harvest events. For winter and Christmas, my favorites are cinnamon and cranberry. These warm, comforting scents bring on thoughts of curling up by a fire while cookies bake, watching the snow fall. I use a lot of candles in pretty glass, mercury glass and silver holders for winter vignettes and for safety around the little ones, I have flameless candles in various sizes. They actually flicker like the real thing! I really love candle light!

November 27 - Today I am thankful that I know more now than I used to. I wish that I had this knowledge when I was younger, but I guess that learning is a life experience and we gain knowledge as we live it. Still, it would have been helpful to know some things earlier on in life, but I won't complain. That may have taken away all of the surprises. I can safely say that now, while I haven't quite figured out all of the answers, I do seem to know what most of the questions are.

 November 28 - Today I am thankful for naps. I'm usually not a nap person - it always seems like a waste of time to be sleeping during the day when I could be doing something else, but there are days when a little extra sleep is required. Once I let go of my resistance to the idea, I discovered the joy of turning on the fan to provide background noise and to provide a pleasant breeze, while slipping underneath the covers in the early afternoon and dozing off. It almost makes me feel guilty but then again, how many guilty pleasures do we get to enjoy that can make us feel so rejuvenated after only an hour or two? OK, maybe eating chocolate, but other than that, I can't think of any LOL! Right now, anything that will lower my stress level is a good thing, so for that, I'm thankful!

 
November 29 - So, as Christmas is fast approaching (gasp!) today I am thankful for all of the holiday memories I have from my childhood. My mom was a holiday queen! She made everything from Christmas to birthdays so special! She baked cookies and cakes, made fudge, divinity and taffy, Chex mix, spiced popcorn with nuts, all kinds of goodies. Everything got decorated for Christmas; she even put little bows on the lamp shades. The mantel was always a special place for her decorating talents. She'd go out back and cut greens and holly and lay them creatively along the mantel with candles and holiday figurines, then hang all of our stockings along the edge. She loved doing the mantel! I think that next to the tree, it was her favorite thing to decorate. She also made table centerpieces from fresh greens and glass hurricanes filled with candles. Our tree was always a big, beautiful live one that my dad would bring home. We would cover it in those wonderful old ornaments, shiny, silver tinsel and glass-beaded garlands in an array of colors. My dad used C-9 lights, those huge bulbs that came in red, blue, orange, and green. They got so hot that one year, when my dad and brother laid them on the carpet to string them along the tree, they burned big bulb-shaped holes in it! That was when my mom convinced Dad to use the newer small lights that didn't get hot. Dad then used the C-9s outside, until one year, when somebody stole them off of our two gigantic evergreens! Can you imagine somebody coming along and unwinding all those lights from your trees and taking off with them? How rude!

One of my favorite Christmas memories is of the big neighborhood party my parents threw when I was probably around 6 years old. All of the area parents and their children were there and we were having a blast, singing carols, playing games and enjoying all of Mom's wonderful treats. Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and Scott, a friend from down the street who was probably about 4, ran to open our door. He did, gasped and backed up with the most comical look on his face, for in walked Santa and Mrs. Claus! We were all in shock as he "ho ho ho'd" and took a seat, so we could each tell him our Christmas wishes. Mrs. Claus gave us all candy canes, we sang "Jingle Bells" and then they announced that they had to leave and get ready for Christmas Eve. One of the funniest parts happened as we were all lined up in the big bay window, watching for the reindeer and sled. My brother blurted out "Hey! Santa drives a Cadillac! Where's the sleigh?" It still makes me laugh to this day!

 And that brings us to - da da da da! November 30th!
 
Today, as we close another month, I am so very thankful that I have so many things to be thankful for! I could have easily gone beyond 30 days! I guess it's not possible to limit our blessings to a certain number of days and I've been trying to really think outside of the box on this one. Of course, I'm thankful for my family, my friends, our home, our freedoms and opportunities, health, happiness - what we usually think of, but there are also those little things that slip our minds sometimes, but mean so much. Places, experiences, smells, sights; every day, we are provided with such wonderful things to be thankful for. So, when we are having a bad day, when we are wondering "why me?", we need to remember to look around and find blessings in even the most minuscule items, for these are often the most precious.

Thank you so much for stopping by, for supporting my daily Thanksgiving and for leaving your sweet comments and emails. I truly am thankful for you and for the opportunity to share what's on my mind. Hugs, Leena