So much to be thankful for....

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and there is so much to be thankful for. My family, my friends, my good health, and people who make me smile and laugh and feel happy. I will be driving to NY state tomorrow morning to go to my grandmother's for the day. She is just amazing, and I want to be just like her when I am 90. I know I wrote a little bit about her when we all gathered for her 90th birthday party in October, but here is some more about her. She was born in 1917, and had 4 younger brothers, two of whom are still living. She was married young, and my mother was born soon after marriage near the end of the depression, and she was a young grandmother when I was born. This is the reason that she is known as Mudder to me and my sister and brother. My mother always called her "Mother", and as I was learning to talk, I referred to her as Mudder. This was preferable to almost any other name that she could have been called at not quite 40. No nanny or granny was she!

She knows how to keep things in line, and by that I mean both people and things. She is young for her age, and never stops or even slows down, travels to Mississippi once or twice a year, and she has had a second husband for almost 23 years after being married to my grandfather for over 40 years. Nick has been a great husband and support to her, and he has been a welcome addition to my family circle.

Last year at Thanksgiving we all gathered at her house, as she said that it might be the last year that she would feel like preparing a holiday meal. No surprise really, when she said that she would like to have us all at her home tomorrow. I haven't yet told my grandparents about the Peace Corps, because I was waiting until I had real news to share. So, now it feels a little bit bittersweet, thinking about tomorrow, and that I will tell her that I am leaving for two years, and knowing how much I will miss the people that I love while I am gone. I am still so excited about this new adventure, but tomorrow it will feel real in a new way.