And so we come to Thanksgiving. A day of F's - food, feasting, football, friends, family, feet that hurt from being stood on for hours while cooking, flying balloons in Macy's Parade; in short, fullness and abundance.

I will be kept busy preparing the feast - turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, canded sweet potatoes, orange glazed carrots, biscuits, baked cauliflower, creme brule for dessert and shrimp cocktail for starters. So I will give thanks for the food we will eat, and I will give even more thanks for having a 4 day weekend to look forward to. (YAY!!!)

As usual I will miss half of the parade because of preparing the feast, but this year I've got DVR (my cable companies brand of TiV0) so I can tape the parade and watch it later on, while I digest my dinner. And so I give thanks for the marvels of the computer age.

Thanksgiving brings mixed emotions. My mom's absence will weigh on me, heavily, so for once I'm actually looking forward to being kept busy in the kitchen. But it'll be hard, because cooking the meal is something Mom and I shared. But in a way, I feel it's paying homage to her to keep the traditions at my household intact, and that makes me feel a little bit better. And so I give thanks for that.

I give thanks for so many things - the people in my life (even though sometimes some of them are huge pains in the butt), the awe and beauty of nature, the visual arts, music, good movies, the beach and the ocean, poetry and my buds over at PFFA, PFFA, the people who visit this blog, dragonflys, angels, sci-fi, cappucino, wine and spirits, the scents of flowers, sunflowers, lighthouses....well, the list would go on for thousands of keystrokes so those will have to do.

But the most highest thanks I give is for having been blessed with my mom. She was a blessing beyond measure.