Gratitude

If you didn't already know - Thanksgiving is hands down, my all time favorite holiday. Gathering around a table of yummy food with a group of loved ones and simply giving thanks for the many blessings that are all around us - just may be what it's all about in my book. And well, in the past year Thanksgiving has become even more special to me.

Last November, Lindsey and Nate started a tradition of holding a Thanksgiving Part I for our friend family here in the bay. Lindsey, Kat and Laura had come into my life about 6 months earlier at a time when I was feeling hurt and lonely and there were many days during that time that I felt so overwhelmed with gratitude for these women, that the tears would just flood uncontrollably. The connection that I feel to these girls is something that I truly give thanks for every day. These women have nurtured my spirit - through craft days, book clubs, sprout dinners, coupa cafe dates, bruschetta offs, blog comments, doodling dates, Yosemite trips and on and on. Our friendship is one for the books - it's not something you find every day and well quite honestly, I feel like one of the luckiest girls in the world to call Laura, Kat and Lindsey friends.

Last year, Thanksgiving grew for me. Beyond a holiday spent with blood relatives, Thanksgiving grew to be about the precious family and communities we build for ourselves as adults, and it's funny because just when I thought it wasn't possible to contain anymore joy - this community opened up a whole new space inside of me, allowing a little more joy in.

And as if it wasn't enough to be surrounded by these women and their so's on Thanksgiving last year, there was also a SUPER, CUTE boy there! Yep, that's right - Loverboy himself graced us with his presence and his incredible blue eyes. I remember walking into Nate and Lindsey's, saying hello to everyone and then being introduced to Joe and just being mesmerized by his eyes. Kat conveniently sat us next to one another at the dinner table, and well, the rest is history folks.

Joe and I talk about how appropriate it is that we met on Thanksgiving (a fav. holiday for both of us) because gratitude is a central part of our outlooks on life and we feel so thankful for having met one another.

We felt honored to get to host the Thanksgiving Part I dinner (Northwest style) this year - as a celebration of our friendship and also as a celebration of us. Yesterday morning, I ran out to do some gingko leaf scavenging for decoration and when I returned Joe had a card and a pretty little box waiting for me. We have been celebrating December 19th as our anniversary - the day of our first date. But in his card, Joe said that he felt that this day was our real anniversary and a bunch of other things that made me cry. HOW DID I GET LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE SUCH A SWEET MAN IN MY LIFE? My cup runneth over...

We came together again for Thanksgiving Part I, Part II yesterday at my place and and the bottom line is

I am just so grateful....

For these incredible people.

For this incredible man.

For some damn good salmon.




For some amazing butternut squash soup, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pomegranate and grapefruit salad, cider, cabbage etc!

For sparkplug friends like Kat who conveniently arrange to sit you next to the cute boy and for Laura's amazing craftiness on these beautiful abalone name place settings.

For games of cards so intense they make you sweat and burn off your dinner.

and for the simplicity of a beautiful table to gather around the people who mean the most to you.

Happy Thanksgiving to you! May you also overflow with gratitude.

P.S. Stop by Dancing Kitchen to read Kat's take on the day :).