I am having Thanksgiving in Vermont with my cool auntie and uncle-y and life is good. I was thinking Thursday about all the things I am thankful for this year, and would like to share my top ten in the hopes you will do the same.
1. I am thankful for my kids.
2. I am thankful for my health.
Some day, I’d like to be thankful for health insurance, too.
3. I am thankful for my friends.
4. I am thankful for the thousands of hours of pleasure reading has afforded me, and thankful that I might in some small way return the favor.
6. I am thankful my divorce is almost final.
7. I am thankful for my gigantic nutty extended family, without whom I’d have very little to write about.
8. I am thankful for my new home, even if it’s probably going to snow eleven months out of the year here.
9. I am thankful that things are looking up.
10. I am thankful that my third book is coming out in March, and that my fourth book seems kind of okay so far.
How about you guys? What are you thankful for?
Coffee. Specifically Dunkin Donuts coffee. In cup. With nothing else.
Oh, and the family and all that. And that I live in a time and place where maybe I can write and pay the mortgage doing so.
I’m more about stronger coffee with milk and Splenda ("Light Sweet Crude") but am totally with you on the mortgage front, Chris. Okay, rent in my case, but still.
First of all, I think it’s really cool that you keep your children in a giant snow globe.
Second, I’m also thankful for my tattoo. Who needs friends when you have a tattoo, right?
Third…I don’t know, I’m in a craaaazy mood this morning. Who knows what I might be up to?
Hey, I’m thankful to be in this awesome published author world. And I’m ultra thankful for having a loving, supportive family at my side. And that my wife is such a good story editor. And that I haven’t had to really depend on my health insurance yet.
PS – I loooove the cover of "Invisible Boy." Love it, love it, love it.
Ah, Stephen–yes, the child-keeping snow globe is a marvelous invention. Especially the kind that comes with trout on the outside.
And I am also thankful for my tattoos, both permanent and temporary.
And thank you for liking my cover. I think it’s awesome.
Thankful to have you as a friend. You make me laugh and are generous and kind. I actually like your whole family.
Thankful my mom is healthy and that she actually looks forward to and enjoys my children and buys them stuff. She loves being a Grandma.
Thankful for my lovely daughter and my handsome son.
Thankful we have a roof over our heads (and it’s attached to bedrooms and bathrooms with walls) and we have food in abundance.
Thankful to have found such a wonderful group of colleagues/friends who all love writing and care about getting better at it.
Thankful for Juliann.
I am so thankful for you and Juliann and your family, Sharon. You guys are so wonderful, and you’ve added so much to my life.
Oh, I’m thankful for so many things! But this year, in addition to the usual stuff, I’m thankful I had so many wonderful mysteries to read! My "Top 10, Best Of" list has approximately 25 books on it, and I just added "Invisible Boy". Yeah, the cover’s nice, but wait until you read what’s inside! Whew!
And I’m grateful for the friends I’ve made, virtual and real, who keep entertainment and information flowling.
Then too, on a passing political note (I know, I know! But really, very fast!), I’m pleased that Ref 71 passed!
Finally, I’m pleased that when I’m stumped for a blog post, I find myself saying, "Pictures! It works beautifully for Cornelia!"
I’m thankful for all the friends who have talked me off the ledge this year. Several ledges, actually.
I am thankful for:
My health and being able to be mobile — my brush this summer made me realize a lot
Having a job — again, my experience in the past year opened my eyes
My family and knowing what friends I can count on and realizing the priority
I’m so thankful that my love of books can pretty much be satisfied through my library and used books sales/stores and that on occasion I can splurge for whatever else.
And I’m thankful that I really don’t have a lot to complain about in my life and I live in a country that was founded on the principles of independence and the right to pursue my happiness.
I’m thankful for my daughter’s laughter, my husband’s humor, the luxury of reading and that I’ve been able to reinvent myself after 17 years devoted to another career. Right now I’m thankful for the "Hershey’s Hot Fudge Topping" that is calling to me. I intend to answer…with a spoon.
Fran, I am so thankful to you and for you.
Dusty, we are both very lucky to have so many ledge-talking-down pals. What would we do without them?
PK, I’m with you on books and country. Lucky lucky lucky…
Sue, you have a spoon after my own heart.
I’m thankful that I survived another Thanksgiving with my family.
I am thankful that a friend’s mom opened her home to me and it could not have been nicer. I had a relaxing holiday for the first time in my life. I didn’t have to cook or clean, the food was amazing, people BROUGHT me things to drink/eat, and there were no fisticuffs at all.
[that may have been the BEST part, although I do appreciate a good … "Grandma breaks a chair over the head of the biggest dude there to stop the fight…."]
I’m also thankful that you sound so happy these days.
Karen :0)
I am thankful for olallaberry pie. And that I still get to see you here at Murderati once every two weeks.
Ari, I’m thankful you survived your family too. And hoping we get to do latkes.
Karen, that sounds like a perfect Thanksgiving, though I like the idea of grandmas breaking chairs over people’s heads, in principle.
Louise, I’m thankful I know you. And that pie sounds pretty excellent.
I am thankful for family, friends, and right now, chocolate chocolate chip cookies that are hot and melty and…. ….. …..
oh. right. hi.
I’m thankful for this great group of people, both the front bloggers and the back bloggers — such a fine, fun, amazing and ever interesting group.
Cornelia, I’m thankful for your posts–you always show with such clarity in just a few words what I’d take a thousand to say. I love reading them.
(Louise, that pie sounds wonderful.)
From the other side of the world I’m thankful that we’re all so connected these days that the positive things have a quicker evolution.
I’m finding increasingly that although Thanksgiving is not our holiday, it is a chance to pause and reflect with gratitude in the midst of holiday prep ( and also the madness which is my daughter’s 21st birthday [somehow she has worked it span 2 weeks either side of her day]).
I’m thankful that my back has healed to the point that a personal trainer told me it was stronger than another part of my body. If I had the co-ordination I’d be so all over multiple joyous backflips.
I’m thankful for my family, sometimes for who they are right now, sometimes as a reference of what not to do. Still thankful cause the full gambit is never dull.
I’m thankful that I’m back in the frame of mind to take chances at things…risky things, like attending my first Writers Festival, and then a Writers Workshop this year…admittedly I attended because I told myself I just like learning about stuff, but it’s a step. If Zoë hadn’t written a post asking why people did or did not attend these events I wouldn’t of realised what a wuss I was being. I found too that through reading the posts here I was able to not feel like a deer caught in the headlights at the workshop. So thanks Murderati crew.
Right now I’m grateful that I have access to a warehouse of exotic cheeses and foodstuffs that I can pillage from for my daughter’s bacchanalia next week.
I’m thankful for the cover of your new book, Cornelia! What a great photo!
I’m also thankful for my wonderful girlfriend, for all our families (mine, hers, her ex’s) who’ve accepted us so simply and so totally, for the book I’m writing now – though it’s hard work, how fantastic that this is what I get to do for a living! -, for the one coming out in Feb, and that my adored brother and his lovely girlfriend have patched up their relationship and are staying together.
cheers,
Katherine.
Three things I am thankful for:
1. That "Jon & Kate Plus Eight Poor Kids Who Are Going to Require Some Serious Therapy, And I’m Hoping Against Hope They All Make It to Adulthood Without Being Arrested" is going off the air.
2. That, based on the comments on the message boards, my latest story has inspired at least two D&D games.
3. Wine.