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I posted the text of this wonderful essay by Kelly Corrigan a while back, and here is a video of her reading it. It makes me cry every time I read it.

She says it a thousand times better than I ever could. But, in this season of reflection and gratitude, I want to say again how blessed I am to have so many brilliant, hilarious, patient, intelligent, fiercely loyal, wise, loving women in my life.

Thank you.

Woke up to the first spitting snow of the season. Grace and Whit were super excited and could not wait to put on their snow gear and go out to the “yard” to play in the “snow.” Ahem. Was fun for about five minutes until they both realized it was just a raw day with small pieces of ice falling from the sky!

A very mellow weekend, and I’ve spent most of it in bed with a nasty flu. I lasted about 55 minutes at the Laughlin Christmas party on Friday night, all of which time I spent propped up by the mantel and fielding questions about my dilated pupils (too much DayQuil, I think). Yesterday morning I took Whit to his BB&N evaluation and spent an hour and a half sitting in the music room trying not to keel over off the bench I was sitting on. I felt dizzy and hot and cold though I did not ever have a fever. The rest of the day I spent in bed. I did manage to make a chicken pot pie to bring over to the Woods to welcome home Winston Anne Boyette Wood!

Today Whit and I had a playdate while Grace and Matt went to skating, and then another nap, a quick run (surely the highlight of the weekend), and now a quiet night with my book. It doesn’t feel much like Christmas yet.

Last year’s Thanksgiving gratitudes are all relevant still today. I have Dido’s Thank You running through my head this morning. Yesterday was 35 people for dinner in Marion – a big crowd, lots of chaos with 7 rambunctious children running around, and a rich assortment of family and old friends.
I’m tired from poor sleep and can only muster this list of simple things I’m thankful for today (despite exhaustion I know I am very, very thankful, and enormously blessed).

• red licorice
• Oyster Bay on the rocks
• cross country flights
• Weeds, The Office, and Chuck (only TV I watch these days)
• great books and time to read them
• my Sunday afternoon runs
• Starbucks venti skim lattes
• “Waiting for My Real Life to Begin” and “The Luckiest” (current favorite songs)
• homemade chocolate sauce
• Anastasia, who takes care of me
• tucking Grace and Whit in (and having them stay there)
• Amazon Prime
• Lego
• my Nike + running sensor
• The nursery school both Grace and Whit went to
• homemade chicken nuggets
• bookstores
• iChat sessions over wine with Hadley
• Christmas carols
• my Subaru
• potty trained children
• my black fleece North Face vest that I wear constantly
• Diet Coke
• the smell of laundry
• Sharon Olds, Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich
• Christina’s daily phone call to check in
• my annual December movie
• Armando’s pizza