I have been thinking about doing some sort of gratitude journal, maybe in a tumblr or something. I just have so much in my life for which I’m thankful, and it’s nice to pay a little lip service to God or the Universe or your deity of choice, I think, to remind yourself of just how lucky you are, especially when so many others are maybe facing unexpected hardship this holiday season.
And so, in the name of blogging like it’s 2007, here’s five things that are making me smile today.
1. Found doggies
My friend Kev lives out in Kemptville, and yesterday he posted on Facebook that he’d found two beagle hound pups that had clearly slipped away from home. Not quite 24 hours (and dozens of re-tweets, and hundreds of Facebook shares) later, it looks like Dancer and Nemo are on their way back home for Christmas. I love a happy ending!
2. Free coffee
I was thinking of paying for the coffee for the guy behind me in the drive through at the Tim’s in Manotick this morning, because I was already feeling pretty chipper and wanted to share the joy. The guy in front of me beat me to it and paid for mine. People are nice, eh?
3. The Vinyl Café at the NAC
Beloved and I brought Tristan and Simon to their first show ever at the National Arts Centre yesterday. It was a bit of a white-knuckle drive in and out of town, but totally worth it to enjoy the live Christmas version of the Vinyl Café with Stuart McLean. We’ve been listening to the radio show for ages, I download podcasts for long trips and we’ve even read a few of the books aloud, so bringing Tristan and Simon to a live show was a terrific Christmas treat. They loved it and so did we, and Lucas had an awesome afternoon with the family of his best friend.
4. Santa visits at work
The boys are coming with me to work tomorrow for our annual kids’ Christmas party and Santa visit. I sort of dropped the ball on Santa photos this year – we thought the local Rexall would have Santa yesterday and I pinned our hopes on that, but I missed by a day. Apparently Santa visited on Saturday, not Sunday. I suppose he’s got his own last minute tasks to wrap up. But he’ll be dropping by my office tomorrow, and the boys and I are all looking forward to this family tradition.
5. It’s Christmas!
I’m pretty much ready, I think. I just breezed past a line-up of at least 100 people in the Chapters downtown (it snaked from the cash registers to the back of the store and started to loop back around again – easily the longest line by far I have ever seen there) and said a little prayer of thanks that I have nothing of consequence left on my Christmas to-do list. After the kids visit with Santa tomorrow, we’ll probably catch a family movie, and then we’ll host the Ottawa part of our family for Christmas Eve. Yay!
Bonus item: Bella’s birthday
Speaking of doggies and Christmas, how happy does Bella look to be featured in this birthday portrait? Our pup celebrates her first birthday on Christmas day. Now that she’s a year old, she won’t be nearly so mischevious, right? And that makes me happy, too! (Shhhh, don’t harsh my bliss and tell me otherwise!)
Happy Christmas to all of you, and much love! May your holidays be filled with joyful moments.
