Notes of thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, it feels like a while since I've had a chance to hop on my blog! Truth be told, it's been a long month with school being non-stop busy and losing my wonderful Aunt Monica so suddenly. (She hadn't told the family that she had ovarian cancer, and suddenly we received the phone call that she was gone.) The funeral was beautiful, though, and every single member of my exended family showed up to say goodbye. The over-whelming response from family for our grieving cousins was beautiful to see. Dan and I kept remarking that we were thankful to be part of the family.

In the same vein of "giving thanks", I thought I would share own grateful project we've been adding to since the first week in November. I shamelessly copied YHL's idea for a "thankful jar, although mine was much less fancy since it didn't include any DIY apothecary jar. Instead, I simply cleared out the hurricane vase, cut yellow card stock into squares, and then Dan and I wrote down things we were thankful for each day.

My hubby actually got into the idea too, which was unbelievably sweet of him seeing that cheesy little projects like this aren't usually his thing.

The rule was that neither of us was allowed to look at the cards until the night before Thanksgiving.

Confession: I peaked a few times. :)

(I'm really bad about waiting for surprises and have on more than one occasion become pissed at myself for peaking at the ending of a book. Yes, I can be one of those people.)
Anyway, Dan and I just finished unloading the jar and reading aloud our notes. What did we write? Read on!

We had some weird things, like:

Dan being thankful for "the bassett hound driving commercial":

Seen this ad? It's a recent Tommy Hilfiger campaign where beautiful people have an upscale tailgating party. They are all dressed in preppy-with-an-edge (think "Royal Tenebaums") style fall clothes. At the end of the commercial, the models chase after a vintage truck that is being driven away by their cheeky bassett hound. Dan is obsessed with those droopy dogs since his childhood pet was a bassett hound, so he LOVES this commercial. LOVES it, people.
It's freakin' adorable.

AND

One of mine: "seeing the albino squirrel on our walk today":

Dan and I love taking walks around the fancy nearby neighborhoods, and for some reason, we always see an albino squirrel. He's become kind of an inside joke, and there has been much debate over whether his hueless fur makes him a freak among normal squirrels... or their king.

AND

Me being thankful for Dan "listening to me read scary entries on pregnancy blogs."
No, I am not pregnant, however Dan and I are starting to talk about a family. How do I prepare for such a big decision? I gather info. And make Dan listen to every bit of it and calm me down when I start freaking out over some of the symptoms. I mean, I knew about weight gain and stretch marks, but I was not prepared stories of marriages crumbling that first year, skin tags, episiotomies, hair loss after baby, and marathon labor sessions. As I read the gory details, poor Dan was there to grimace miserably... and turn off the computer monitor.

Weird notes of gratitude, huh?

We also wrote some normal ones!

Here are a sampling of Dan's:

pumpkin ice cream

good health

my wife's laugh

the Beatles on iTunes

your excitement over Harry Potter

long fall walks with my girl

our Italy trip

you showing interest in my new golf swing

the idea of the thankful jar

And here were a few of mine:

pumpkin pie ice cream from Coldstone's

the tulips you gave me last week

all 14 of my cousins traveling to say goodbye to Aunt Monica

having healthy parents

your cackle

our home

time to blog and run and bake during the upcoming long weekend

the "faux" Thanksgiving we had with friends last week!
(I'm a sucker for a theme dinner party...)

You calling this morning just to say "I love you"


I'm planning to make some kind of a "thankful" book with these notes that we can maybe add to each year. I'll post what I come up with soon!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving tomorrow!
Pictures from here, here, and here.