My Top Five Reasons to be Thankful in 2010

You know what I love about Thanksgiving? All of it. I love the turkey and the pumpkin pie and the leaves and the hot apple cider. I love that you don’t have to buy any presents or do any kind of preparation really, other than defrost your turkey. Best of all, it doesn’t offend anybody’s sensibilities and so it’s open to all to celebrate and enjoy. All you have to have to celebrate Thanksgiving is thankfulness. So here are my top five reasons to be thankful in 2010:

5) I found a recipe for pumpkin pie that actually like. It’s kind of a bummer when everybody is all excited about the pumpkin pie at the end and and you can’t actually bring yourself to put the stuff in your mouth. I mean it’s brown and mushy and there’s no icing to speak of. I bought a can of pumpkin the other day in a fit of seasonal madness even though I don’t really care for it, so I decided to make it my mission to make something edible out of the contents. This recipe actually had me going back for seconds, no sprinkles required!

4) Winter decided to delay it’s arrival after all. It was not looking good there for a while, was it folks? It’s funny how in the rain, you can’t see all of fall’s splendor. Check out Fall Drives on the Edmonton’s Countryside web page and be sure to catch it before it’s gone!

3) The Dollar Store. Did you know you can get escargot at the Dollar Store? I kid you not! I haven’t tried it but I did buy Italian roasted peppers, fancy crackers from England and three kinds of Scottish chutneys. I made an international appie plate for $3.00 plus tax. I also bought ice cube trays in the shape of pineapples, spoons made out of chocolate and a tiara. LOVE the Dollar Store.

2) Kids and husbands and family and pets and friends and bosses and co-workers and neighbors and teachers and the lady who found my cat. And the people who leave carts in the parking lot of Superstore. Those of us who consistently forget a loonie bless you. Yes, I know you can buy one of those token thingies – I forget those, too.

1) So I’m watching the first episode of Little House on the Prairie the other day and yes, of course I cried. As I wailed and carried on, I watched Pa negotiate with the farmer who owned the land and then build the Little House, board by board, all by himself. Before the first commercial break, he had finished construction and he was ushering his family into their new home. I think in Little House years, each minute is roughly 1 month….I mean, how, in the name of Nellie, did he build that place by himself before Half Pint’s 22nd birthday? But that was Pa for ya. It had a fire place and a room for the girls and a kitchen. All you could dream of back then. As the family looked around the new digs, Pa kissed them all good bye to go off to the first of his three jobs to pay for the place. I was going to say that the number one thing I was thankful for was that I wasn’t Pa because that was hard times, friend. But now I think I will say that I am glad for my own fireplace, kitchen and rooms for my kids, and for amortization, so my husband and I only have to work a job a piece to pay for it all.

1A) I forgot whip cream. I’m very grateful for whip cream. It helps to get the pumpkin pie down.

Happy Thanksgiving, Friends!