Saturday, November 24, 2012

Counting My Blessings

Thanksgiving is always a wonderful time of year to celebrate your blessings with your family and remember those loved ones who aren’t with us anymore.  Since my Mom passed away four years ago, it hasn’t quite been the same.  But we decided it was time to start our own tradition the first year after she was gone.  Since then Romeo and I have been cooking Thanksgiving dinner for our family.  He smokes the turkey and I do all the trimmings.  It has been a great system for many years and we have always enjoyed being in the kitchen together.
On Thanksgiving Day, it was two weeks since my Cancer-Free Boo-Bee Day.  There is no doubt, I’m still moving a little slow and need help with a lot of “normal” things.   You know, like carrying my purse at the grocery store (my Romeo is obviously confident in his manhood), getting out of bed (okay, he uses this to his advantage), changing my clothes (ditto), cooking, doing laundry, and ANY type of house cleaning.   Okay, I am totally milking this whole recovery thing, but somehow I am justifying it since Dr. BK and Dr. Sarah said I need to take it easy for 4-6 weeks.  Anyway, this year my oldest daughter, Brittney graciously helped Romeo provide me with the most splendid Thanksgiving feast ever!  I was very impressed since Britt has never cooked such an extravagant (and all homemade) meal before.  She totally amazed me! 
It was so relaxing (but almost felt guilty) to stay in my jammies all morning and watch the Macy’s Day Parade.  In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever watched it from beginning to end because I was always in the kitchen with my Mom or cooking for my own family.  But this year it was super special!  Oh the glorious benefits of “recovering” from surgery.  (Romeo forbids me to say I have cancer anymore.)
One of the events I missed this year was the Black Friday shopping frenzy.  I know, most people think shoppers like me are crazy, getting up at the crack of dawn to buy discounted items.  I swear I am NOT one of those people who will wrestle you over the last $199 TV, but it’s fun watching the people who get this intense.   Honestly, it’s really not about the shopping, it is more about being with my girls doing something CRAZY!  Even if we don’t buy much, we have lots of fun and laugh a LOT!  Since I wasn’t able to physically shop this year, I made a list of the items to buy at each store along with their associated coupon for my girls to purchase my gifts.  I’ll have to admit, it wasn’t as much fun, but I did enjoy them sending me pictures of their “finds” and texting me when I needed to make an alternative gift choice.   
The other affair I missed was photographing my kids for our annual Christmas card.  It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been sending out Christmas picture cards for over twenty years!  Every year we decide on a “theme,” coordinate their outfits and then we are off to the selected location for our photo shoot.   I remember when they were little it was such a dreaded event.  When two would be positioned perfectly and smiling, the other one would be crying or not paying attention.  Many years, the day would end with three crying kids and me swearing we would never do it again.  Thank goodness those days are over! 
This year one of my good friends, Chris offered (well I asked him) to take our pictures so we wouldn’t break tradition.  Now how many friends do you have that would agree to spend an entire afternoon taking pictures of your (sometimes dysfunctional) family?  Do you think I have overstepped my boundary of our friendship?  Sure, we could have gone to JC Penny’s to take pictures, but it wouldn’t have been as fun and we wouldn’t have all the “bloopers” to laugh about in years to come.  Chris, and his wife Kathy (aka photo assistant), certainly proved their unconditional love/friendship which I will never forget.  Thank you, Chris and Kathy!  We love the pictures and can’t wait to share this holiday season!     

I am so thankful for family, friends and my medical team who have supported me through prayers, positive words, food, gifts, cards, flowers and love.  Without a shadow of a doubt, I would not have been able to remain positive and sustained hope without these wonderful people uplifting me each day.  Please know I am very thankful to have each of you in my life, even if it is long distance or we only have a cyber friendship.   Happy Holidays!

2 comments:

  1. I know how important it is to keep traditions going (even when it's hard to do!). Glad we could help!

    -Chris

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    Replies
    1. Thank YOU, Chrissy. I'll be forever grateful!

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