Tuesday, December 1, 2009

5 Reasons to be Thankful or 5 Things that Make Kate VERY VERY HAPPY!

We spent Thanksgiving this year at my parents house and after we finished our dinner, my mom informed us that she had an activity that she wanted ALL of us to participate in. She walks quickly into the kitchen and grabs a bag of Christmas M&M's and passes out five to me, Kate, Joey, my dad, my brother Matt, his girlfriend Bonnie and my mom.

She explained that we were to go around and take turns expressing 5 reasons that we are Thankful. So my mom started and looking at my dad, she says "I'm thankful for the love that we share," and pops the M&M in her mouth. My turn, "I'm thankful for Brendyn and the wonderful addition he's been to our family and for the quiet calm that he brings."

Now, it's Kate's turn, and the only thing she wants to do right now is eat her five M&M's so she can have more... So I turn to Kate and I tell her that in order to eat her M&M, she has to tell us one thing that she is thankful for, which resulted in a big blank stare. So I rephrase and I ask Kate to tell us something that makes her happy and first she raises her hand (side note: because we have many "talkers" in our family and we all tend to talk over one another, my dad instituted the raise your hand in order to talk at the dinner table, which is kinda hard for my brother and I as adults to still master) and my dad tells Kate to go ahead, and she responds, "I like Ariel, mermaids, and flowers." We all chuckle and praise her for doing a good job sharing."

So next Joey, my dad, Matt (who has consumed many beers playing golf and frying the Turkey with Joey realizes that this has the potential to get sappy - quickly lists his five reasons and throws all 5 M&M's in his mouth), Bonnie goes next then my mom starts round 2, then me and now back to Kate, who once again raises her hand, stands up in the chair and says "I like mermaids... and flowers... and Cooper... and Mommy and Daddy, Memaw, Grampa... Brendyn... Matt... Bonnie." So we say, "Thank you Kate" and she takes her M&M and sits down.

Rounds 3, 4 & 5 continue to become more and more heartfelt from the adults. While Kate continues to be happy about her mermaids and flowers. After we conclude, my dad manages to point out that in my the five reasons that I shared I didn't individually state that I was thankful for Kate, so now I'd like to publicly share my 5 reasons to be thankful.

1. I am thankful for Brendyn for being a wonderful and quiet addition to our family.
2. I am thankful for my wonderful family and for a loving and supportive husband.
3. I am thankful that Joey and I enrolled in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and for all the wonderful things that we've learned in that class and that we complete our baby steps so one day we may attain Financial peace.
4. I am thankful for our church and my Sunday School class and for the support and the social outlet that they give our family.
5. And most of all I am thankful for Kate, and her ability to make me laugh and almost every day.

No comments: