Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love it because it's all about gratitude, and family. I found a post with 30 days of thanks that I want to do.
  1. What smell are you grateful for today? Like most women, I love the smell of chocolate (and bacon). I love the smell of new babies, and fresh mown grass, and the ocean. Strangely, I love the smell of manure. Manure smells like farms and Grandpa Porter. When I was small and we visited Grandpa and Grandma Porter, Grandpa would get up early and go feed the cows. If I got up early I could go with him--and I LOVED to do chores with Grandpa. First, we would eat bread and milk, sprinkled with green onions, for breakfast. Now I'm sure that if my mom served bread and milk and green onions for breakfast I would have balked, but I'd do (and eat) anything to be with my grandpa. I haven't had this special breakfast for many years but I remember it fondly. Next, we walked out to the corrals to feed the home cows. We forked hay into the troughs, and shoveled out the stalls (this is where the manure smell comes in), and cleaned up the area. Next, we drove down to the farm and did the same for the cows down there. Then we finished the morning with a ride on the jackrabbit road singing "riggidy-jig-and-away-we-go hi-ho, hi-ho, hi-ho" at the top of our lungs. Grandpa died when I was just 12 years old but a whiff of good country perfume--manure--transports me back to that magical time with grandpa.
  2. What technology are you grateful for? I love my apple products. I love my iPhone, I love my iPad, and I'm learning to love my Mac. I love that I take a picture with my phone and it magically appears on all my devices. I love the Ancestry website. I can do more family history in an hour on Ancestry that I could do in a year with a weekly visit to the family history center in Salt Lake pre-internet. I'm super excited about my new app Dragon anywhere. I plan to use it to make my family history books more easily.
  3. What color are you grateful for? Green is my favorite color. It's the color of new life in the Spring (I argue that it's Heavenly Father's favorite color for the same reason). 
  4. What food are you most grateful for? This is a hard one. There are very few foods I don't like. And since I'm writing this on fast Sunday everything sounds good. But, a few of my favorite foods are good bread, gourmet cheese (ok, any cheese), well-cooked steak, and any fruit (I also like most veggies but if I admit that you will think I'm crazy).
  5. What sound are you grateful for today? A baby breathing. Especially a newborn baby. When my children were small I always worried that something horrendous would happen and they would die in their sleep (our dear friends Dee and Ann Strasburg lost a little girl, Sasha, to crib death when Chelli was a baby). Most nights I got up numerous times, tiptoed into my children's rooms, and quietly listened to them breathe. It was the most beautiful sound in the world.
  6. What in nature are you grateful for?
  7. What memory are you grateful for?
  8. What book are you most grateful for?
  9. What place are you most grateful for?
  10. What taste are you grateful for today?
  11. What holiday are you grateful for?
  12. What texture are you grateful for?
  13. What abilities are you grateful for?
  14. What sight are you grateful for today?
  15. What season are you grateful for?
  16. What about your body are you grateful for?
  17. What knowledge are you grateful for?
  18. What piece of art are you grateful for?
  19. What touch are you grateful for today?
  20. Who in your life are you grateful for?
  21. What song are you most grateful for?
  22. What story are you grateful for?
  23. What tradition are you grateful for?
  24. What challenge are you grateful for?
  25. What moment this week are you most grateful for?
  26. What form of expression are you most grateful for?
  27. What small thing that you use daily are you grateful for?
  28. What small thing that happened today are you grateful for?
  29. What friend/family member are you grateful for today?
  30. What talent or skill do you have that you are grateful for?

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