I'm Grateful for My iPad

I know. Thanksgiving is a week away and I should be grateful for all those easy standbys — my children, my parents, my health, etc. And I am, I swear I am. In fact just last week a young father in the neighborhood died suddenly of a heart attack, leaving his wife and three children behind and suddenly I had absolutely no problems at all and a ridiculously long list to be grateful for. 

So in honor of next week's festivities, the gratitude lists that have been going around Facebook, and because the best way to deal with the familial conflict that the holidays tend to engender is to head them off at the pass with gratitude. Here's my list of twelve:

1. I'm grateful for all the lovely Classics (SJs), Organic Structures (NFJs), and Smart Structures (NTJs) who are crazy about lists and seem to keep me in them, poking at me to start and finish projects that would ordinarily take me years instead of months and days.
2. I'm grateful I have a roof over my head, heat in my home, electric pad on my always cold feet, and food in a belly that I wish was a number of inches smaller.
3. I'm grateful for my handsome and clever husband and my determined, beautiful, smart and funny daughters who all take turns surprising, delighting, and loving me. I must have done something good in my wicked, miserable past to deserve them. 
4. I'm grateful for The Sound of Music! Plus A Christmas Story, Peanuts Holiday Specials, and all the memories those shows give me when I watch them again.
5. I'm grateful that I not only tolerate my sister and brother, but that I consider them my bestest friends and that no one in the world can say my name with the same intensity of irritation as my sister. 
6. I'm grateful for having a Mom and Dad who are wonderful powers of example who raised me to follow my dreams and cherish my family, and who still take care of me when I need it. I'm also extremely grateful for Google so my dad can be proven wrong during family dinners.
7. All the extraverted Organic Freedoms (ENFPs) and Funs (SPs) in my life who make me go out and experience new things when all I want to do is curl up with a good book or a new TV show on my iPad.
8. I'm grateful for the buck and doe I saw behind a house yesterday, 10 feet away, and their lingering scent of fear as I walked where they had just fled. And other moments like this.
9. I'm grateful for all the Organic Freedoms (NFPs) who become friends almost immediately and then stay that way.  
10. I'm grateful for living now, in this time and age, in this space.
11. I'm grateful for holiday magic.
12. I'm grateful for how easy it is to watch television shows from all over the world, from a moment's notice, whenever I need to be alone and recharge.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody. See you in December!

I'm Grateful for My iPad