Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Family Traditions

Now tell me Hank, why do you drink? Why do you blow smoke? Why must you live out the song that you wrote? Sorry.  The title of this post reminds me of Hank Williams Jr.  My sincerest apologies, really.

Justin and I completed our Christmas Tour 2011 on the weekend before Christmas.  We drove 546 miles, saw 3 families, some friends, and then wrapped the 5 day weekend with an awesome concert.  It was a long, tiring, really great weekend.  I don’t think that we have ever seen all three families consecutively for Christmas before, so this was a first.  Each family does Christmas a little different, and each family has their own traditions.
This is the second Christmas that Justin and I have spent all by our lonesome.  People asked me all the time, but what do you do all day, all alone.  Well, I will tell you. Our Christmas celebration starts on Christmas Eve.  Usually there are last minute errands that need ran, and the house always needs straightening up. (I swear little gremlins come and destroy the house when I am not looking.)   I think that Christmas Eve is synonymous with baking, so I made Cookie Dough Bites this year.  Very tasty even though there is technically, no baking
For the second year, we have attended a Christmas Eve service.  We attend the one that Megan sings in, it is a beautiful service.  At the end of a busy, hectic, holiday season, it centers me and gets me focused on the real reason for the season.  
Christmas morning, we sleep in and lay around until we decide to get out of bed.  We go open presents and our stockings. After we open presents and ooh and ahh over them, I will cook breakfast.  During the time between breakfast and lunch, we talk to each our families.  Then we take the morning to play with our new stuff.  Then I cook dinner.  This year I cooked a Creamy Italian Chicken Pasta.  I got the idea from Pinterest.  I know it’s not your traditional Christmas dinner, but I will discuss that in a few.
It was a very enjoyable laid back day.  I didn’t get out of my pajamas.  I love our family very much, and I miss them terribly on Christmas.  (It helps since we get to have our own private Christmas with them, the weekend before, but still...)  But it is great to spend Christmas not rushing, not stressing, just enjoying the day.
With all the thought of our Christmas and Christmas with our family, it has gotten me thinking about traditions.  Which traditions that I will take from our families, and which ones I will replace with new ones.  Now I haven’t gotten it all figured out, but here are some things that I definitely want to incorporate into my family’s traditions. Now keep in mind, some of them are for the future.
  1. Italian dinner for Christmas Dinner – This is a BB original.  We always attend several Christmas dinners before the big day.  So I get a little tired of ham, not to mention all the effort that goes into cooking a big Christmas meal.  I want to cook a good, filling meal for my family, but I also don’t want to spend all day in the kitchen.  That’s why Italian is the perfect choice.  You can easily make a Lasagna the day before, and just throw it in the oven.  Serve with some garlic bread and big salad. Bingo!  This year, the chicken and sauce was cooked in the crock pot, and all I had to do was boil some noodles.  Christmas dinner is 30 minutes.  I think this plan will free me up to have more time on Christmas morning with my family,
  2. Reading the Christmas story BEFORE opening presents – This one is stolen from my parents.  Every Christmas, we would read the Christmas story before we were allowed to open presents.  Now when I was little, I would shake all my presents, arrange them in the order that I would open them, and then wait for the Christmas story to be read.  Yes, I was still very focused on the presents under the tree, but it made me very anxious for my dad to get to reading that Bible!
  3. I want to continue to think quality or quantity when it comes to presents.  I always want to take the time to think about the recipient, and choose something that is specially meant for them.  They say, “it is the thought that counts”, well I think that is totally true.
  4. I like to leave my Christmas tree up until after New Years.  I don’t know where this came from.  I like the idea of Christmas lasting and bringing in the New Year.
  5. This is a future one.  Once Justin and I have children.  I want to set up the manger a little differently.  I want to set up the manger that is empty, except for the animals and the shepherds.  I want to put Mary and Joseph (no baby Jesus) in a separate room and the kings in a room even farther away.  Before Christmas, I want to make a point of moving Mary and Joseph closer to the manger every day.  And finally on Christmas Eve, they arrive at the manger.  And the Christmas morning, Baby Jesus is “born”.  The wise men then began making their journey to the manger to arrive on New Years.  I read this in a book, and I thought it was a brilliant idea.
  6. I want to continue to have stress-free relaxing Christmas Days!
I think that is all for now.  Expect a post this week, showcasing some of my Christmas presents and new projects!

Friday, December 16, 2011

The Most Wonderful Ornament that I Never Made

I have been making ornaments for about 3 years now.  I try to make a different kind every year.  One year is was paint that was swirled inside a glass ornament.  I actually loved those so much, that  I did them two years in a row.  They looked something like this.  The designs that emerge from the swirled paint are pretty awesome.  My tip here would be to allow plenty of drying time between colors.
Last year, I made some quilted ones.  Like this.   Here is a picture of one of them I made last year.
 
These are really cute.  You can use all types of fabric combinations and really personalize it for the recipient.  These take some time, so be prepared.  My tip here would be to buy an astronomical amount of straight pins.  It is amazing how many pins are used to make each one.
Now I bet you are on the edge of your seats wondering what this year’s ornament will be.  This was the plan.  I was going to monogrammed them and tie ribbons on the top of them.  And there were going to be wonderful.  I bought all the materials in advanced.  I was ready to go.  I sat down to work on these last Saturday night.  It was not the best time for crafting, I had come off an emotional roller coaster of a week, and had already had a couple glasses of wine at a girls luncheon.  Anyways, I couldn’t the etching to show up like I wanted it too.  Now, I have done some research and learned of my mistake(s). 1.) I didn’t leave the etching cream on long enough.  The kit instructions say only one minute, but everywhere else clearly states 5 minutes.  2.)  I may not have waited long enough to see if the etching would become more prominent.   I quickly gave up, cried a little, and moved on.
This has left me with two thoughts regarding the Holiday season.  Although I do not have cute little ornaments to hand out this year.  Christmas will go on as it always does.  What matters most is that I am going to get to spend time with my family and friends this holiday season.  Yes, I am sure they will be a little sad, that they aren’t going to get the awesome ornament describe above, but they will get over it and still love me.  And that is what matters, that I will be around people that love me this Christmas.
I have also learned to slow it down.  If I had waited a little longer before I gave up, I may not have had to give up.  Who knows?  There could be a beautifully etched ornament in the box that I hastily put away while I was discouraged.  So my advice this holiday season is to slow down and enjoy all of the work and effort that goes into the holidays.  All the shopping, baking, and crafting, slow it down and think about the person/people that you are going through all this effort for.  Remember how much you care for them, and how appreciative they will be once they receive the fruits of your labor.   That is what will make the holiday more enjoyable and meaningful.  And if your family doesn’t get that ornament, well there, is always next year. 
Slow Down, Enjoy The Season.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Yarn Fairies's Debut

Exciting things are happening.  I know that I already work full time doing my “real adult” job as an underwriter.  I know that I am already behind enough on my housework, that I don’t necessarily need a new venture in my life.  But I am ignoring all of that, and I have started to brainstorm about the future of Yarn Fairies.
Megan and I love to knit and crochet.  Megan first learned to crochet from her grandmother.  I first learned to knit from Jill.  Then I taught Megan to knit, and she taught me to crochet.  I think we both do them interchangeably now.  The funny thing is, Megan and I make a lot of stuff.  However, we don’t wear a lot of the stuff we make, which is very odd. This creates a big problem.  What do we do with all the stuff that we love to make? 
Well, last December Megan started to get orders for furry, curly scarves, quite a few orders, actually.  I even helped her complete some of the orders.  It was during this time, that the idea of doing this for money came to fruition.  So we would talk about it from time to time, but nothing ever came of it.   In the fall, we decided that we would participate in the Holiday at Smokerise Christmas Festival and gauge the response from the attendees.
That show was on December 3, 2011.  So after months of knitting, crocheting, and planning, the day had come.  We were so afraid that our table would look empty and pathetic.  We were worried for no reason.  We had so much inventory that we had to brainstorm ideas to display all of our items.  See our booth!

I am glad to report that the initial launch of Yarn Fairies went very well.  Megan and I made a profit and covered all our expenses for getting and setting up the booth.  We did not sell everything.  I think, more importantly, this was an excellent learning experience, and we have some ideas to make our next show even better.  I think, most importantly, we had a great time! 
What is next for Yarn Fairies, you may ask?  Well, we have determined that we want to do more shows.  We think that fall and winter are probably the best seasons to sell hats and scarves.  We are interested in making some summer items, but we are brainstorming the best way to bring those to the customers.  We have just recently created a Yarn Fairies Facebook page.  We currently have 5 like!!  Yes, I know.  We have reached the big time!   Maybe an Etsy shop is our future.  Who really knows? The sky is the limit. 

P.S.  I am excited about the Christmas presents I have been making.  Stay tuned for some pretty cute pics to come.  Don’t want to spoil the surprise and post them early!!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

5 Day Weekend! A New Trend??

Last weekend was kind of amazing.  First, it was five days long.  Second, it was the weekend of Thanksgiving.  Third, it was my First Anniversary.  Fourth, it was the weekend of the Iron Bowl.   I have been waiting to do this post until my anniversary present was resized.  But then I decided, I would just post a picture from the website.  I know my readers are creative enough to imagine how wonderfully I wear my present. So today I blog.
 Let’s start at Thanksgiving.
All of the food was fantastic.  My dad smoked a turkey and a Boston butt, and we had all the trimmings to go with.  The dessert was out of this world. 
I made a pumpkin cheesecake using this recipe.   I also learned a few things.  1. Graham cracker crust will not easily slide into a cute pumpkin baking dish.  If you try, you will make a huge mess and crust will break and go everywhere.  2. You can never really soften cream cheese enough.  It seems that it will always be hard to work with. 3.  Sometimes you have to ignore cooking times, and trust your gut.


Sandy made a cake.  What is so special about this cake?  It is a chocolate cake with raspberry filling iced with a butter cream frosting.  The inspiration for this cake came from my wedding cake, which I absolutely loved. 

Thursday night was filled with Vampires and LeighAnne.  We went to see Breaking Dawn.  Then Justin, Holly, Terri, and I take off to Dothan to follow a lead on some $15 boots.  It was a close call, but we got the boots.  The crowds were insane.  See below.  But all of our Black Friday shopping was done and we were home in bed by 5am.  Crazy.

During the Boot Madness


Seriously, Like 10 mins later.

Friday before we returned home to Atlanta, we did get spend a little time with Justin’s newest cousin, Eden.  So precious.

Our first anniversary was fantastic, just know that.  I will give you a rundown of the gifts that we exchanged.
My gifts to Justin
1.      I found this idea on Pinterest.com to make a book out of a deck of cards.  Each card has a reason why I love him.  It was pretty cute, and I realize that I have a lot of reasons. 
2.      I put together pictures from our first year of marriage together in an album.  It showed that we have had quite a few adventures this year.
3.      I found all the cards, letters, poems, etc that we have written to each other over the years and put them in one massive binder. 
4.      I secretly read the Grapes of Wrath.  This doesn’t seem like much, I know.  But this is Justin’s favorite book that I have been avoiding reading for years and years.  Justin never thought I would read it.  He was totally surprised to find out that I already had.

Pinned Image

Justin’s gifts to me

1.      A message in a bottle.  Justin wrote a beautiful poem and put it in a bottle. BTW, I almost never got the poem out.
2.      Laugh with Lola.  Lion Brand Yarn Company does a comic strip in every other newsletter.  The comic book has all the comic strips together.  A great paper gift for the first anniversary.
3.      This beautiful ring.  I have been keeping my eye on this forever! Seriously, I have wanted this ring for over a year.   I am in love with this.  So it was hard for Justin to surprise me with this, so I got it a little early.  Which is totally okay by me.



As you probably know, the Crimson Tide defeated the Auburn Tigers with a convincing win!!

Sunday, I had a great catch-up breakfast with Kaitlin.  Then Justin and I spend the rest of the day cleaning and getting our home ready for Christmas. 

This was a really great weekend.  I really could get used to the two day work week, and five day weekend...

Monday, November 28, 2011

Homemade Gift Exchange

In the beginning of November, I signed up for a homemade gift exchange.  I came across it on the Craftalcoholics  Anonymous blog.  See link below.
I thought this was such a cool idea.  So I signed up and was quickly paired with a partner.  My partner was Caty from North Carolina.  We actually had a lot in common.  We are both 25 years old.  Both of us just celebrated our first anniversary in November.  And we both married guys named Justin.  How crazy is that!!  Caty favorite color is purple and she loves dragonflies. 
My initial thought was to make my "go to" girl hat in purple, and then add a dragonfly broach that I could have probably scored off ebay for next to nothing.  But then I thought, this is the perfect time to try something new.  So no cheating for me!  I decided I would make the dragonfly out of beads and wire.  It took some figuring out. 
The first thing I did was draw what I wanted the shape of the dragon fly to look like. 

Then, I played with the wire to see if that shape was even possible.  When I saw that it would work.  I beaded the wire, and then started to shape the wire into the picture I had drawn.  I think it turned out beautifully. 

Now the original go to hat I was planning would not cooperate.  So I found this new stitch called the puff stitch.  Super easy, but it makes this hat SUPER warm.  I am glad that I did not take the easy path, but instead I learned two new things for this gift exchange. 

Here is the sweet thank you, I received. 

Oh, thank you so much!  I absolutely LOVE the dragonfly, OMG.
I tried it on and it fits my head like it was tailor made for me! :D
Thank you again so much, I've never received a gift like this.  You are very talented. :)

Just in case you are wondering.  This is what I received.  I think it is super cute.  It is already on my shelf.  What a great paper gift for a first anniversary.
http://ohdarling143.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

30 Days of Thanksgiving

It is almost Thanksgiving!!  I know I should save this post for Thursday, but my to do list is rather large.  I am getting ready to travel home to Alabama and then also preparing for our anniversary on Saturday.  So I thought I would get ahead of the game.  I wanted to make a list of thirty things, for which I am thankful.
1.      I am thankful for my husband and a wonderful first year of marriage.
2.      I am thankful for my dad.  He has always provided an example of the person I want to be.
3.      I am thankful for my mom.  If I could only be half the mom she is, I will be okay.
4.      I am thankful for my sister.  She sets an incredible example of discipline and determination.
5.      I am thankful for my home church.  A place where one can grow and explore their beliefs in an encouraging community made up of great people.
6.      I am thankful for my friends.  Quality over Quanity.
7.      I am thankful for my job.  I am blessed to work for a great company with great people. 
8.      I am thankful for LeighAnne. She brings so much joy to me and the people that are around her. 
9.      I am thankful for Katie.  She is like my big sister. 
10.   I am thankful for my cats, Daphne and Cooper.  They are so damn cute.
11.   I am thankful for Kacee.  She is the sweetest person I have ever met.
12.   I am thankful for Megan.  She is so creative, enthusiastic and accepting.
13.   I am thankful for my coworkers.  They make work fun and a never-ending adventure.
14.   I am thankful for all my friends that I have met throughout insurance world.
15.   I am thankful for my health.  And the health of others around me.
16.   I am thankful for all the food I have to eat.  Wish more of it was low fat, but I think that is my fault.
17.   I am thankful for my freedom.
18.   I am thankful for my hobbies.  They keep me sane.
19.   I am thankful for my in-laws.  They make me feel so welcome.
20.   I am thankful for Holly.  She brings in a breath of fresh air wherever she goes.
21.   I am thankful for my extended family.  Although, I don’t see them much, I know that they are there.
22.   I am thankful that I am from the South.  Yes, I catch a lot of grief from Northerners, but there are some things that just cannot be taught. 
23.   I am thankful for life lessons.  They are hard and they hurt, but they are the best teachers.
24.   I am thankful for naps.
25.   I am thankful for my salvation.  A salvation that is between me and Jesus.
26.   I am thankful for chocolate.  Some days it would be impossible to get through without.
27.   I am thankful for Saturday mornings. 
28.   I am thankful for the great teachers of my life.
29.   I am thankful for technology, where ideas can be shared, changed and personalized.
30.   I am thankful for reflection.  A time where we can reflect on the things that make our life worth living.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Turkeys, Owls, and a Alien. Oh My!!

I am a little behind, so expect a string of posts in the next week or so. 
I was going to put this blog post up last week.  But I was doing some traveling for work.  I started in IL on Sunday and ended up in NYC on Friday.  It was a crazy weekend that led into a crazy week.  This week does not appear to be any less crazy, but it will be filled with family, great food, an anniversary, and some epic football.  Before we go on to this week, lets catch up. 
Two weekends ago, my mom and sister came up for a Girl’s Weekend.  We had several projects to tackle.  Our planned was to get a head start on Christmas shopping, make cake pops, and I had some other projects that I wanted to conquer.  (I only got one of those personal projects done.)
Friday started out with a lunch at Creations, the restaurant at the culinary school where my sister attended.  We then left there to paint pottery, buy some gifts, and get supplies for the cake pops.
Justin joined us for sushi.  And then we got started on the epic process of cake pops.  I don’t know what I was thinking.  I had an idea that we would finish them on Friday night.  I was wrong, way wrong.  We did however get the cake baked and formed into balls. 
Here is my sister looking happy.  After 48 cake pops, she does not look so cheerful!

All us girls in the kitchen, Daphne wants to help, too!!

After a shopping spree at the Mall of Georgia, we made it home and started right back on the cake balls.  We dipped them in candy coating.  (This is significant, since I have tried to make cake balls numerous of times and the chocolate never hardens! Now I know why)

Once they are dipped the fun actually starts.  Very tedious fun, but fun!  We started with snowmen, owls, turkeys, and reindeer. 





And I have to say that Becky showed extreme discipline and stuck to the list.  I, however, quickly got bored.  And the following are the results from my boredom. 


Yes, This is an alien!

We had a lot of fun!  Becky had the Cake Pops book that we followed.  We also referenced the blog of Bakerella.  So this concept is not ours, but the alien pop was all mine!!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Not Album Worthy, but Def Memory Worthy

I know it is a little early.  It is not my anniversary yet.   But, it is 17 days until my anniversary.  We are finally getting around to ordering wedding albums, so I was going through the pictures again.  Fact is, I have been through our website a million times.  I love our pictures.  I love our photographers.  And I understand that they have to move on, and since my album is getting close to a year old they have to remove it and make room for new customers and new pictures.  
So I am going through the pictures and remembering the thoughts and emotions that were running through my head on that day.  While I was selecting pictures that I must have in the album, I start to think about the pictures that didn’t make facebook, or the wall, and probably won’t make the album either.     Yes, these pictures are not wall worthy, but they do convey some back story and emotion that made my wedding unique.  So I am going to share them here.  I am not going to bore you with a recap of the entire day.  I just want to put a story with the picture.
This is me talking at the rehearsal dinner.  If I ever have to host and plan another big even, I am going to hire someone.   I was so stressed that everything that I had worked so hard on would not all come together.  As you can tell from the picture, I cannot hide this.

I forgot a lot of things of my wedding day.  I forgot to wear my garter during the service and the reception.  I forgot until the last minute that I didn’t arrange anything to PLAY the slideshow that I had worked so hard on.  But the biggest thing I forgot was my underwear.  Don’t ask how I managed to do this, but when I got ready to put on my dress, I realized I had no underwear on or in my immediate possession.  Luckily, Terri is known for giving us underwear.  She had bought me and Justin special wedding underwear.  Justin had both pairs, and the best man had to bring me some panties in his pocket.

I bought my dress eight months before the wedding.  It was a perfect fit, when I had bought it.  I am claiming that I was having a fat day, and the dress was a little tight.  Thanks to my army, I got into the dress.  Until the final button fastened, the only thought in my head, “What if I can’t fit into this? What will I wear?”

There are no words for this picture.  I have no idea what they were doing.  I have no idea.  But it looks like fun.

I don’t know whose idea it was to leave me alone.  Lol.  But here I am reflecting, I am thinking about how in just a couple hours I am going to be married to my best friend.  I am thinking about my vows.  I am a pretty emotional person.  I was about to cry.  I, then, told Karen/Mugga that I was about to ball my eyes out.  And she says,  “Baby, no don’t cry.  Cause then I am gonna cry.”  Katie then imparted some wisdom to me that I have not forgotten, she said, “You cannot cry during the service, Justin needs to hear what you have to say.” 

This picture says it all.  Holly does hate Aubs.


Even on my wedding day, I have time for knitting.



This was the best part of the entire day, even though we lost the Iron Bowl.


 Here I am surrounded by my family and friends, that might as well be family.  We shared a special memory here.  I was with the people that I love most, and the people that love me.  It was a great feeling.  All the stress was gone, and I was deliriously happy to be married to Justin.  In fact, I am still deliriously happy to be married to Justin.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Fun Fall Weekend

I really love this time of year.  The holidays are on their way.  There is crispness to the air, and the colors that emerge this time of year are breathtaking.  This weekend was the epitome of fall. 
Kacee and I ventured up to North Georgia for a day full of fall fun.  Although, I just reached my 3 year anniversary in Atlanta, I have never explored much outside the city.  So it was a real adventure.  We had lunch at Glenda’s, which was known for their down home cooking.   Then we were off to the corn maze.  I had never been to one before, and I have to report back that it was a lot of fun.  Although we were determined to find the six hidden checkpoints, we easily got distracted by the beautiful scenery. 


And even though, we decided to be kids for the day, we were easily sidetracked and on a mission to create the perfect fall centerpiece.  We decided that the dried corn would make such an authentic centerpiece, and thus began coming up with a way to steal several ears of corn. 

Here I am smuggling the corn out under my shirt!  I gave the corn to Kacee, so hopefully she will send a pic, so I can post it on here.  So you can see the finished product from my stolen spoils.




We ended our day in North Georgia with a haunted house and a hayride.  It was truly a great day.











Football is a great part of fall, however, the Bama game Saturday night was not.  So I will skip the details of that.
Every year I say, that I am going to do more fall baking this year.  In fact the recipe that I made on Sunday, I actually found and saved on October 29, 2009.  Allrecipes keeps track on when you add a recipe to your recipe box.
I followed the recipe almost exactly.  It makes a lot of bread.  It took just under an hour to make.  While I was grocery shopping, I found the cute little loaf pans.  My idea is to freeze them until Thanksgiving, and then hand these little pans out as little gifts.

The bread is amazing.  It is moist.  It has a great fall flavor with just a touch of chocolate.  I have been eating it for breakfast.  This recipe has definitely encouraged me to continue with my fall baking. 
I have a great dessert on the agenda for Thanksgiving.  So those that will be spending Thanksgiving with me, be excited!

Friday, November 4, 2011

It is NOT Christmas

The day after Halloween, I was watching TV and a Christmas commercial came on.  And the same thought that crosses my mind every year about this time, popped into my head.  It is not time for Christmas.  I love Christmas.  It is my favorite holiday by far, and come the day after Thanksgiving I will be in full Christmas mode.  Decorating every square inch of our house with Christmas stuff, turning up the Christmas music, doing Christmas crafts, but it is not Christmas yet. 
It is the month of Thanksgiving.  I know that Thanksgiving isn’t nearly as commercial as Christmas.  And I know that during a bad economy retailers need a good holiday season to end the year in the black.  But it is not Christmas!
However all that being said, I do realize the need to plan ahead.  I didn’t say that I actually planned ahead, but that I see the need for it.   I always plan to have my Christmas shopping done early, really I do.  Christmas shopping always stresses me out.   And I don’t know how it happens, but I always end up doing last minute Christmas shopping. As you can imagine, last minute shopping in Atlanta is way less stressful, not. 
I literally was shopping for Justin on Christmas Eve of last year.  However, last year we had an excuse.  We got married on Black Friday of last year.  So the six months prior, wedding was the only thing on my mind.  Then after the wedding was the honeymoon.  So by the time we got home, it was the second week in December and we were behind on all things Christmas.
NOT THIS YEAR.
I am determined to get my Christmas shopping done early.  My goal is to have all my shopping finished on or before Black Friday.  That is a pretty lofty goal for me.  But I have taken some necessary steps to completing this.  I have already made my Christmas list.  Not only have I made my Christmas list, I also have listed next to their name, what I will buy for them.  How impressive is that? I have been working on this list for the month of October, so it is pretty much finalized. I have been doing some research, so I know what items will be cheaper online, and what items that I will need to go to the store for.  I also have a shopping trip planned next weekend to knock some of those “buy in store” items out. 
Now with that being said.  I am making quite a few gifts this year.  And I am nowhere near completing all of those.  But I have a list of that too.  Things I need to make for Christmas.  And as soon as the Christmas Festival is over, I will be a Holiday Knitting Maniac.  You can’t take all the stress out of Christmas!
So there you have it.  This will be my only mention of the Christmas season until after Thanksgiving.  I refuse to give in to the Pre-Thanksgiving Christmas hype.  I am going to use the month of November as a time of reflection of the things that I am thankful for.