Grateful for being Grateful

Most of you may see this on or around Thanksgiving.  They don't have Thanksgiving in Brazil, but for some odd, unknown reason they have Black Friday.  Maybe because the internet as truly made this a global community. 

So at this time I am grateful for being grateful.  We have had a lot of great times and our share of hard times.  And gratitude gets me through the hard times.  I always think, "It could be worse."  And it is true, I can imagine things being much worse and so I'm grateful that they are not. 

Today made me laugh.  The boys are finally sleeping in a little in the morning.  Which is great.  I get up and get the older kids ready and Jamison drives them to school.  (And with 4 trips to the school it is great to have one taking care of by Dad!)  But back to the boys.  With sleeping in they don't fall asleep when I go get Abby at noon.  So . . . .   at 2 I take another drive.  Just to get them to sleep.  I usually tell them I need to practice getting around, which is true. 

(Sidenote, the GPS has been unreliable lately, which is very worrisome for me as I DO RELY on it!  It keeps freezing mid-navigation.  Luckily I haven't been too lost and have eventually found myself to familiar streets.  I am SO grateful that didn't happen the first month of being here)

(Another Side Note.  We celebrated our 2 months of Brazilian living last night.  Jamison and I shared a giant brigadeiro and watched a tv show on Net Flix.  Yes we really know how to live it up.  But that is how we roll now.  We have enough excitement in daily life that we just want to relax with chocolate for celebration!)

OK so back to the driving around to get kids to sleep.  I have a neighbor across the street that is always home.  And I'm sure I look very funny to him.  Loading all three resistant, tired children.  Coming home 15 minutes later to unload all three of the sleepy limp children.  Then two hours later loading all three sleepING children back in the car to go get the kid number 2 from school.  Then unloading the 4 kids who are now all awake but fighting over who gets to open the door.  Then an hour later loading the 4 resistant kids to go get kid #1 at school.  Then coming home 10 minutes later to unload all 5 kids with only one getting hit in the head by a car door because the other kids aren't paying attention to what their bodies are doing and what the consequences of their actions are!

Daily life is exciting enough!

So Thanksgiving.  It has been rough trying to decide what to do to celebrate here.  Work hard to keep to tradition or have new traditions based on what is available.  One friend went to 10 stores on 3 days to try to find a turkey.  Logistically impossible for me.  So I have finally decided to have a simple Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving.  Jamison has to work and it is rather depressing to cook in my kitchen by myself all day for one meal.

I did cry today when a very well intentioned family member invited me to their house for Thanksgiving while I was talking with them on the phone.  "There is nothing in this world I would want to do more."  I replied.  And then I cried.  There is no cranberries, turkey is hard to come by (and I can't have my oven on all day since it is going to be 97 degrees and we have no AC), we don't have orange sweet potatoes, I would have to make my own sausage for cornbread sausage stuffing. It is hard to make a traditional Thanksgiving dinner and it is even harder to be without family on the holidays. 

But I will sure be grateful for it all the next time we are together!