Skip to main content

Ten Things of Thankful: Putting One Foot in Front of Another

 

A Gentoo penguin plods along the beach in the Falkland Islands in December 2024

Sometimes when I sit down to write a Ten Things of Thankful post, a theme clearly develops as I reflect upon the past week. Other times, like today, nothing in particular comes to mind as far as a theme goes, but yet there has been lots to be thankful for.

This week, I'm thankful:

1. for a neighborhood ornament exchange. I've managed to miss it every year we've been here, for one reason or another, but this year I finally went. It was fun to chat and laugh with neighbors. 

2. for the temple. It offers such a spirit of peace.

3. for game night. About once a week, we get together with youngest son and his girlfriend for dinner and game night. It's always good to laugh and talk together. 

4. for the church women's organization. We had our Christmas party on Thursday night, and (OK, maybe there is a theme developing) it was good to laugh and visit together.

5. for talented performers. We watched a local production of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" on Friday night. Little Gladys Herdman was played by a little girl from our church congregation, and in real life she is a sweet, kind, well-behaved little girl. It was scary how well she portrayed Gladys, who is far from sweet, kind, and well-behaved! 

6. for John's parents. We went up to visit with them on Saturday. They asked us to help them haul some things off to electronics recyling, so John loaded up our car. 

7. that everything fit into our car. 

8. for self-adhesive Christmas card envelopes! I didn't realize they were peel-and-stick, and was pleasantly surprised to realize I don't need to lick envelopes this year.

9. for Christmas music. 

10. for John. 

What are you thankful for this week? Leave a comment and feel free to link up your own post! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Comments

  1. CaiDecember 14, 2025 at 5:05 PM

    It is wonderful to share your time with others to spread cheer. Back in the day of being in the office, we used to have Secret Santa gift exchange and then the alternate version of paired gift exchange. The X'mas ornament exchange wasn't as fun because people prefer the gift exchange. It was refreshing to recall my memories of a few of these activities. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Conversations are so much nicer when more than one person does the talking. :-) Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts; I'd love to hear from you!

Popular posts from this blog

Monday Mentions: Equate Crutches

Have you ever needed crutches? I hadn't, until a week ago.  I'm pretty sure I strained a muscle while running a half-marathon.  (That sounds kind of cool, doesn't it? I'm not actually that cool; the last time I strained a muscle it was from carrying too many shopping bags at once.) In any case, I found myself in need of some crutches. I sent my husband to the store to get some. Photo: A pair of crutches leans against a wall  Not that crutches are all that complex, but because I hadn't used any before, I wondered if I could figure out how to adjust them to fit me properly. I shouldn't have worried. John came home from Walmart with their generic store brand of crutches, complete with instructions. First, I needed to take out a long bolt that went through the hand grip. Then I needed to find my height range, push down two metal pieces, and slide the crutches until the little metal pieces came up in the hole near my height range. (Having two people for this...
4 comments
Read more

Ten Things of Thankful: Live from Oregon, part 2

stock photo of old computer monitor When I was 10 or 11, I remember sitting next to my dad in our living room and reading computer code to him as he entered it into an Apple computer. We would finish the exercise and he would hit enter (or was it "run"?) and wait expectantly for the green type to appear on the screen. If we were lucky, the whole conversation would occur. Most often, there would be an error either in my dictation of the code, or in the typing of the code. We would then go painstakingly back through the lines, character by character, to find and correct the error. After what seemed like hours (and might have been), we would succeed and the computer would finally run the entire program. It was magical! My dad designed and built an earth-sheltered, passive solar home decades before solar panels were commonplace. He also was on a 9-month waiting list for a Prius, when hybrids were not seen on every street.  While my dad is definitely on the cutting edge of technol...
5 comments
Read more

Ten Things of Thankful: Oregon Edition, Part 3

  A western bluebird, sitting at the base of a house window, looks inside Thanks (1) to those who have sent well-wishes for my mom's recovery. Her wrist is healing up nicely. I met a friend from high school for lunch this past week. It was so nice to have a chance to visit with her for a couple of hours. She is one of those friends who it doesn't matter how much time has passed, we can pick right back up into meaningful conversations. Lunch ended all too soon, but I'm so thankful (2) for her, and I'm thankful (3) that she reminded me of the importance of reaching out to others.  Being in my parents' home this week, visiting with a long-time (I'm not saying old!) friend, and with Mother's Day tomorrow, my mind naturally reflects upon the women in my life. I'm thankful (4) for an incredible mom--a gentle woman who taught and loved and guided us (and still does.) I'm thankful (5) for grandmas who were different in their personalities but united in their...
3 comments
Read more