Happy Thanksgiving!

I cannot believe it is that time of the year again! I absolutely love Thanksgiving. It is a time to get together with family and reflect on all the things you are grateful for. What better way to do that than to gorge out on a fantastic feast with the ones you love. I also think that this holiday is a perfect precursor to Christmas because we can get in the mode of gratitude and segue into a celebration of Christ's birth.

To celebrate Thanksgiving I am going to do my annual list of things I am grateful for. They are in no particular order and are not exclusive. I don't think any list will ever be able to show all the things I am really grateful for, but this is the best I can do.

1. Good movies: Inception, Nine, Up in the Air, Elf, Princess Bride, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the list goes on and on and will continue to grow. Hollywood still does some good work!
2. Family: Who else would put up with me?
3. Great friends: I have old friends who continue to stick by me and prove their undying friendship and I continue to make new friends.
4. My car: Phoebe is still going strong. She is actually really good in the snow which is a bonus for her.
5. My book: I am so grateful for how it is all falling into place! I really think it has some great potential and I can't wait for everyone to read it.
6. Hadjii: My dog's breath may stink and he may yap obnoxiously sometimes, but he is a pretty awesome dog. I don't know what I will do when he is gone.
7. Art: In all shapes and forms I love it.
8. New-found confidence: I am the most comfortable in my skin that I have ever been in my life. I finally dress the way I want to and have fun with creating different looks. And my body is in the best shape it has been in a long time. I also feel more self-assured when talking to people. It is such a big step in my life!
9. Books: Love them! Can't get enough of them!
10. Deodorant: Random but...can you imagine life without it? Gross.
11. Ties: I am becoming a tie freak. I love finding new ties with awesome colors and designs.
12. Beaches: For giving me something to dream of when I am in the middle of an Idaho blizzard. And for the opportunity I had to spend a whole day on a beach in California this year.
13. Decisions, free agency, and choice: I love that I have been given the freedom to choose to act or be acted upon.
14. The beautiful women in my life: my mom, my sisters (Katie and Brittany), my niece Gigi, Sue and Susan who make work awesome, all my aunts, my grandmas (Taylor and Phillips), my cousins...women are amazing!
15. Dreams: Having aspirations and desires of an ideal future are sometimes the only thing that keep me going.
16. The gospel of Jesus Christ: Restored in its fullness, I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
17. Experiences: Good and bad. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to preach the gospel of Christ and to bring people closer to the Lord in Florida. Also I am grateful for the hard times I have gone through in order to make me who I am.
18. The great minds of history: Da Vinci was an amazing man. He had so many inventions that I never knew he had a hand in. Shakespeare who has done more for literature than any other person in the world.
19. Ireland: For being a never-ending inspiration for me, a place of dreams, and a land I wish to visit someday.
20. Games: They're fun. That's all.
21. Dates: I have gone on a lot of dates recently. Some good. Some not-so-good. But all are great for the experience.
22. Heartbreak: Weird to be grateful for such a thing but I think I have learned a lot from the heartbreaks I have experienced.
23. Holidays: I love celebrating and really getting involved in holidays.
24. Flu shots: I just got one this year and I think it has made a huge difference already.
25. Blood drives: I have the universal blood donor type so I went a few weeks ago and donated for the second time. While the little nurses who were taking my blood were not the nicest I really felt like I did a good deed.


That is really all I can think of right now.

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your feast!