Thankfulness

Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m a day late because yesterday was a busy one at our daughter’s house. My parents are here from Ohio, which was a bit of a challenge but my wife made it happen by flying to Toledo and helping by driving them here. My son’s girlfriend’s parents are here, too, from the Columbus area. Add my daughter’s family and our son-in-law’s parents and brother and it’s the most people we’ve had together for Thanksgiving in years.

I’m very thankful everyone was able to get here safely. There were some weather challenges that could have been worse. My Mom and Dad have had some recent health issues that could have kept them home, but they were determined to get here, and they did! As I get older I am more and more thankful that we have a family that gets along so well. I know a lot of families don’t, and all families have bumpy times, but this particular holiday was very important and everything worked out fine.

My wife picked up another major client last week, so she is set now for being out on her own. It’s going to be kind of scary but things look a lot better for her, and for us, than it did three or four months ago. She stuck with it and didn’t fold when I’m sure the pressure was getting to her. She’s really courageous and she stuck it out and now things look much better. I think in the long run she will be a lot happier than she was in her old job.

For it being a lousy year in a lot of ways – the death of my brother, my wife’s job hassles, my parents’ illnesses and legal stresses as a result of my brother’s estate issues – it  looks like things are improving. And I’m very thankful for the two cutest granddaughters in the known universe!