Ten Things of Thankful

During the past week, which also happened to be the week we celebrated, Thanksgiving here in the United States, being grateful was very much on my mind.  I'm linking this post to the blog hop Ten Things of Thankful created by Lizzi and co-hosted by many others.

As you can see on the bottom of Lizzi's post, there are many others who are co-hosts.  Those things for which people are thankful run the whole gamut, and of course, may vary quite differently from week to week.  As you read of the things for which others are grateful, you may or may not feel the same way about certain things, because we are all our unique individual selves with our own lives and experiences. The wonderful thing about this blog hop is the respect and consideration each one gives to the others who share their thoughts here.  Through that mutual respect which is shown, there is a wonderful friendship which develops among the bloggers.

Here are some of the things for which I felt thankful this past week, besides the very obvious of my husband, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, and the blessings that come from the freedoms we enjoy.

1.  We learned that the really loud noise that we heard coming from the back of the car was easily fixed and wasn't going to be as an expensive a fix as original indicated.  (We apparently ran into something that was low enough to escape being hit by the bumper, but  high enough to jar the exhaust pipe slightly loose and create a loud racket.)

2.  We made a decision to get some new lighting fixtures for a storage room, and we can now look forward to a day this coming week when they will be installed.  The ceiling is high, so for our own safety we will have them professionally installed.

3.  I learned another couple of things about Photo and Preview on the Mac that will be beneficial to me in doing my blog posts.  I now know how to make a slide show using Preview, and also learned that on Preview I can create a sepia photo, which used to be available on iPhoto, but isn't on the updated Photo.  There are some other features on Preview which I think will be useful in the future too.  (I'm sharing this information, not because many of you who are so much more advanced than I am in blogging and in writing might benefit from this, but because I know there may be others who are just beginning to blog and may be Mac users too who may not know of these features.)

4. The beautiful sunny, however very cold nights, that were part of this Thanksgiving week were so appreciated.  I can't say enough about how very beautiful the days were!

5.  Our celebration of Thanksgiving with family actually came the day after the official Thanksgiving Day, because our son and family who live nearest, celebrated the day of Thanksgiving with another family member.  They came here that evening.  My husband and I forewent the usual big dinner on the actual day, and started the annual putting-on-of pounds the next day.  I appreciated my husband's help so much in getting the house ready for our visitors.  He is so good about anticipating what needs to be done that would be most helpful to me!

6. We always enjoy seeing how our children's family's have grown and matured.

7. We took a trip over to a nearby wildlife sanctuary part of one day.

8. We played some games, including my favorite game of all times, Scrabble.  The youngest granddaughter visiting played the word "oof."  I challenged it.  Well, although it didn't mean what she thought it did, it really is a word.  I guess I'm not as smart as a 10 year old!

9. After a day of feasting, I enjoyed taking an early evening walk with my daughter-in-law and the older of the grandchildren visiting.  It was nice to walk and talk and enjoy the scenery.  The sun was beginning to set and the sun cast a beautiful pink light on the mountains to the east.  It had kind of a surreal look.

10. The day our son and family returned home, we all went to visit my Mom at the nursing center.  We took her down to the dining room where there is a piano.  There the grandchildren took turns playing some pieces, and then our daughter-in-law accompanied while our grandson sang a piece.  After that we all joined in singing a Thanksgiving song and several Christmas songs.  Mom even tried to sing along with the family on some of the songs. We treasure the moments when she seems to remember some words to songs, even though it is very difficult for her to remember the names of people and who they are.

Our son and family treated us to a wonderful lunch at a well known restaurant in the town where Mom lives. As we exited the restaurant we enjoyed watching the Glockenspiel clock tower above the doorway.  Via the characters, one can learn the history of this Bavarian town.