My List

In a season where people often ask, "What's on your list?" I'd like to share my list of a different sort, things I'm thankful for this holiday season. Here goes...in no particular order

1. Time off (yay!)
2. gift buying, card sending completed a whole week early (first time ever)
3. tons of help from my husband :) #2 would otherwise not exist
4. my chickens started laying eggs again! their second winter they don't lay unless you trick them with a light to extend their daylight hours (thanks again to the hubby and daughters who rigged the light for me)
5. a babysitter that puts me totally at ease and fills the house with smells of Christmas baking and who has a mellowing effect on the kids (jaw drops open here)
6. my busiest and most successful Christmas knitting season ever (and I thought quitting the farmers market would be my downfall)
7. happy dogs
8. happy kids
9. happy marriage
10. the chance to bake way more than I need to, just because
11. an old friend hopefully moving back to town (fingers crossed!)
12. my ideal job, without it #1 wouldn't be possible either
13. friends
14. creativity. the kind that prompts my son to make a punching bag out of pillows with his friend, and my daughter to write a book so intriguing that her tablemates at school snatch it during free reading time
15. my other daughter's two front teeth
16. hope for the future. for changes coming, for hearts softening, reality hitting. for eyes lifting and a life that continually moves forward.