Are You Thankful for Where You Are?

As Daniel is running around the house yelling, "I got you Butt Man" (probably confusing our physical anatomy with the infamous hero, Bat Man), I am pondering Thanksgiving. Too often I get caught up in the holiday buzz or altogether try to avoid it. This year, I have been making my prayers more meaningful and grateful. Well, the one I said for lunch was anyways. I'll work on the rest. Meanwhile, I'll attempt to teach Daniel what this holiday is really about. I think this may just qualify me as a good mother.

Carlo is rushing me to get showered and ready. Yep, I have yet to take care of myself today; such a surprise for a stay-at-home mom. We are off to the paintball store in preparation for our first family paintballing event! There will be no gun pointing at Coral, Daniel or myself, but he did invite us to watch the festivities. Personally, I think he is afraid of what will happen if I play. Domination.

Our early morning activity means I will be over at my parent's home tonight preparing the turkey. The new tradition (starting last year) involves me gutting and basting the turkey. My mom politely transferred turkey duty to me. I am almost 30 years old, so I probably ought to step up to the plate and take one for the team; or at least prepare the bird who took a chopping for the team. Yikes!

For the last bit of my post . . . I have such a hard time keeping my chuckles to myself when Daniel's maniac cruising through the house results in his injury. As I was putting away clean dishes today, Daniel's indoor activity involved running around and around the center island shooting imaginary monsters. I am not sure how the next event occurred, but it did happen in slow motion. He was propelling himself forward, mouth open with a smirk on his face when he made contact with the corner of the island. A loud thud sounded through the kitchen with some crying to follow. Blood was oozing from his mouth and I had to play the cool and collect mom card. After ascertaining the minor damage (he had pierced his tongue in two places with his canines), I pulled Daniel to me and laughed silently. That was perhaps the funniest, slow motion injury I have yet to witness from Daniel as it was highly unexpected. I'm sure there are many more to come. The best ending is Daniel's soft whine saying "It'll feel better in a minute Mom." And it always does.