Tons of Thanks

Yes, I know -- it's been a long time since I've updated my blog. We're still working to adjust to the change in our lives due to Gregg's position being eliminated. No need to worry though; we're doing great, just working on making yet more changes in our lives.

Yesterday's Thanksgiving dinner hit both of us -- in the past we hosted the entire meal but this year we found it necessary to ask everyone to bring something. It felt weird, like we were giving up. Strange thing though, we noticed that everyone ENJOYED bringing a dish to pass -- even Manny and CeCe. So perhaps all along we were taking the joy way from our guests by doing it all. At times I can be my own worst enemy. Thanksgiving is a time for sharing and that's exactly what we did yesterday; shared the preparation, the meal, our lives. I had time to visit with my guests and learn what's been happening in their lives. My older niece and nephew are both back in college and doing quite well. My younger niece and nephew joined us for the first time this year; it was wonderful to recall memories of when Manny & CeCe were that young and to look forward to LP (Christie's baby's nickname) next year. My daughters are a constant source of pride and Kent challenged Manny & CeCe to some tough chess matches. He was quite surprised how much they have learned from his coaching. It was a different kind of Thanksgiving but I think I like this model.

Sometimes we're running so fast that we miss all the great stuff happening right in front of us.

So, we're clipping coupons and experimenting with different foods than we would have in the past. We're eating at home more and enjoying great conversation amongst the three of us (Gregg, Don, and myself). I borrow movies from the library and am working on reading all those books in my library that I've collected throughout the years. We're watching sales and even braved Black Friday and saved almost twice as much as we spent.

Sometimes we're running so fast that we can't slow down enough to think of a better way.

Christmas will be different too and I think it's going to be OK, just different.