Since I've been lagging in my blog responsibilities...

I'm overdue for my Thankfulness blog. While it isn't a particularly original topic this time of year, I'm still holding myself to the edict I made here. I am going to change up the format a little. I wasn't able to keep up with my daily items very well this time with all the holiday traveling, so I thought I'd try more of a narrative feel.

My last Thankful post was on November 12th. Therefore, I have 17 days to account for. Technically, then, I would owe you 51 items to be thankful for. (Please, take a moment to be wowed by my mathematical genius... okay, fine... I used a calculator.) However, that sort of obsessive need for details and to follow the rules to their ridiculous end kinda takes the meaning out of it, doesn't it?? And, that same part of my personality is one I believe I could use some work on. I'm just going to ramble away and see where it goes.

Sad but true... I'm ecstatic about the fact that a friend insisted that I buy and read the Twilight book series. They were fantastic and I spent an entire weekend doing nothing but reading all four of them. Seriously. The laundry pile reached mass proportions and threatened to take over the world but I didn't care!!! What is it about vampires (and sometimes pirates, arrogant princes, and other manly men images) that seem to make us all googly-eyed? Heck, I wanted to be a vampire by the time I was done.

On with it.... I'm thankful for an entire 9 days away from work. I didn't even THINK about it for 5 of them! Those blissful days entitled me to some serious family time with not only my kids and Mike but also with both my and his families. We spent a great deal of time in a car, but the kids are seasoned travelers so other than our cramped quarters it was fairly painless. It's shocking the amount of stuff that we cram into the Explorer before we even put us in it.

I'm glad that we got to spend time with Mike's mom. She doesn't get to see the kids very often (once or twice a year) and this time they were all old enough to remember her from the last visit. The last time she came up to our house back in the spring, Abby asked her when Granny Nina was coming to visit (in case you haven't guessed, Granny Nina is Mike's mom...oops). It's unfortunate that she lives so far away, but since neither of us are willing to move it's a situation we make the best of when we can.

I'm thankful for the size of our family. My side of the family is fairly small, but Mike's is HUGE. Divorced parents will do that for you, I guess, but the kids really enjoy the fact that they get multiple iterations of the same holiday with different groups of people. They are loved by a lot of great people and that is something that I will never take for granted.

I am utterly and completely thankful for spending the morning doing completely girly and out-of-character things like dressing my kids up and curling their hair with BOWS even. They love to have their hair curled and I'm not a complete monster - even I can operate a curling iron if necessary.

I'm glad for the wonderful day we spent with my family. I'm still very, very selfish about spending the actual holiday with my family. Mike doesn't mind and I'm VERY thankful for that, because I've never spent a single holiday without them. For those of you that know me, you know that my Mommy and Daddy are quite possibly the greatest people on earth. I don't know of anyone that has been around for longer than a few seconds that hasn't had the privilege of being spoiled by them.

I have some GREAT pictures from that day that I'll post later.

I'm sure I didn't make it anywhere near 51 items. It didn't seem appropriate somehow since the items that did make it are pretty significant. I would be remiss if I didn't say I was glad about beer, though. It doesn't reach the level of Thankful or Ecstatic but it holds its own. :) Hope you all had as great a holiday as I did.