A day in my life and a serious gratitude list

Feeling sorry for myself isn't really my style, although lately it has been a challenge to remember that.  So here is my gratitude list today.

First of all I have a new grandchild on the way, even though it is a long way off. Secondly, my oldest granddaughter just got accepted at Columbia.  Is that rad or what?  I have to admit she totally deserved to get in, but in today's world, there is no such thing as fairness or entitlement, is there?  She may be playing soccer for the school and certainly her plans to become an achivist, or something along those lines, may change by that second semester, but who cares?  She is going to go to her first choice school and she is going to live in New York City, her favorite place on earth.

My life is much less exciting but I love this time of year.  My husband cut down a fresh Christmas Tree for us at our friends' Christmas tree farm.   Their last name is Wiseman, so you have to forgive them for calling it, "The Tree Wisemans" farm.  Hey, this is the northwest, and we love corn.

Did I mention my husband can be a bit of a visual perfectionist?  Anyway, he came home with the perfect tree - it had also been treated with fire retardant and de-bugged in this fantastic shaker machine they have - and set it up in the living room.

Then the man got everything down from the attic and put the lights on the tree - ecologically correct LEDs - in such a perfect way I couldn't help thinking how lovely it was even without decorations.   He is also an incredibly tolerant husband, by the way.  Rather than put lights on the front of the house, I talked him into making a design in our backyard.

The back of our house is all windows, so we decided to put something there that we could look at all evening.  We are at the end of a country road, so it is not like anyone else would notice anyway. It was just an out of the box kind of thought, and at first he wasn't too excited about it, but once we finished?  He loved it too, although he is the kind of guy who doesn't over-dramatize and generally uses the word 'like'.   He has a more reserved, intellectual reaction to things while I am sloppily emoting like a fourteen-year-old girl.:)

So here's my gratitude list, which I realized was pretty long after Lori Lee S. pinged me and asked how I was:

My old dog is still alive and well.

My husband is too.

New baby on the way.

My son and his girlfriend are flying up from San Francisco for Christmas.

My daughter and her husband and our five-year-old granddaughter will be here too.

Our big granddaughter, as mentioned above, got into Columbia.

Our oldest daughter who lives in Los Angeles and her husband are doing very, very well, as are the two young boys they are raising.  (They can't come this year, but maybe next?)

We will celebrate our 32nd wedding anniversary on Monday and my eight years of cancer survival happen to fall on that day too.

I've had every dang screening known to woman (or man) and have just gotten a clean bill of health.  (For that first few years I wasn't worried about saving for retirement, know what I mean?)

I've lost 15 pounds.  (Yeah, even though it is the holidays!)

Re-reading my list, I guess the only thing left is to mention that I have some wonderful friends here and around the world and that includes all of you, whom I love dearly along with your comments, posts and pictures.  (I can get lost on Gather if I don't watch out!)

Oh, and the crazy design we did with the lights?  The picture shows it from a distance as I thought the moon above looked pretty cool.  Anyway, the kids are going to ask us, "What is it?"  and we are going to look as wounded as we can when we answer, "Gosh, can't you tell?".

(P.S. As you may have noticed, I have not figured out how to right these pictures. If you click down below the article, they will enlarge, but they will still be sideways I'm afraid.)