I am twelve days into my 33 days of gratitude and am finding this exercise delightful indeed. I seem to have roped a few others in as well. Join in if you're so inclined, it's not too late!
I am writing just one or two sentences down in the moments before I crawl into bed, and then reading them again to myself in the morning. It only takes a few minutes, but it does force me to give a true moment of Thanks.
My very first entry came after an exhausting and chilly Oklahoma day. Not all of them are so serious or sentimental. I've found that an alarming number revolve around food. But today I am highlighting #1:
I am grateful for a family who values activities together, and who bands together to make these precious life memories fun.
I could go on and on, simply write posts and posts, about my idyllic childhood. Our family just did the most fun stuff. We spent whole summers on the lake, and a week each winter snow skiing. We were sent away to summer camp and drove cross-country almost every year to the beach. We had season Sooner football tickets and often drove to amusement parks in Texas. I don't feel like there was anything substantial I missed out on.
It has only recently occurred to me that those things in life didn't just happen by accident. My parents spent considerable amounts of time and money to create this life for our family. Only now, twenty years later, am I able to see their sacrifices and imagine the headache that must have come along with all these beaver-cleaver memories.
How thoughtless that we always teased and complained about the fact that my parents drove their vehicles into the ground (and truly, I have ridden in the back of some kind stranger's car more than once when we ended up broken down on the side of the road), when obviously that was one such way they chose to save. And it is only a testament to them that we were never, not once, made to feel guilty for the family fun (as in, "don't you see what all we're doing for you?").
And now having experienced a few vacations with the nieces and nephews, it is oh-so-clear that family trips are far from restful for the parents. Wrangling toddlers and lift tickets and beach balls and sippy cups doesn't leave you feeling rejuvenated.
Still, I am eternally grateful for the effort my parents made, and that my whole family continues to make, to create these life memories. Because we're still laughing about some vacation antic from twenty-five years ago, or at some consistent behavior that prevails. My brother has taken the reigns on our family trips and does a great job of shaping the next generation's idea of family fun. I know they're forming their own memories and soon will start poking fun at us much the same way we (still) tease mom and dad and each other.
Not every family has these opportunities or shares the same priorities. As we move into the holiday season, I am deeply grateful that we do.
(photo circa 1982 on the annual christmas tree hunt with our closest family friends. I'm the one in the overalls and wooden-looking shoes sitting on the edge of the truck. Mom is the one rockin' the fur-hooded coat.)
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