On this day after Thanksgiving I have so much to be thankful for.\u00a0 The real problem is figuring out where to start.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s begin with all the kids and grandkids who came to Thanksgiving dinner yesterday at Grandma\u2019s house yesterday.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m thankful for the feast itself.\u00a0 Yes, there were the usual suspects on the table\u2014turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, fruit salad, pumpkin pies.\u00a0 But there were also some new veggies available\u2014parmesan dusted cauliflower\u2014which, if you\u2019re trying to stick to the \u201cplan,” does just fine in place of mashed potatoes.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m thankful for my first mother-in-law, Mary Grandma, whose turkey dressing recipe was front and center.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m thankful for our health, and for the pieces of our health that Bill and I have managed to regain in the course of the last six months.\u00a0 When I mentioned the \u201cplan\u201d above, I\u2019m not talking about a diet.\u00a0 I\u2019m talking about a fundamental change in our way of life and in how we do things.\u00a0 Yes, I\u2019m still walking\u2014even in the wind and rain.\u00a0 Yes, I\u2019m still exercising.\u00a0 And I\u2019m thankful for the fans who have sent along their own personal progress reports.\u00a0 One lady wrote to say she is down 60!! pounds since reading my May 1 blog.\u00a0 Compared to her, I\u2019m a piker\u2014I\u2019m only down 50.\u00a0 And this week I was able to wear a size 16 dress that I bought and wore once in 2004, and haven\u2019t worn it since.\u00a0 I found it lurking in the back corner of my closet, tried it on, and it FIT!!<\/p>\n
Why am I writing about this, still?\u00a0 Is it bragging?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 It\u2019s a way of keeping score and keeping myself honest.\u00a0 If I stop giving you walking updates, it could be the same as not getting on a scale because you already know it\u2019s going to be bad news.\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 Keep checking on me, folks.\u00a0 That\u2019s part of your job if you want to keep me healthy.\u00a0 By the way, as of today, my yearly daily step average is 9,970.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m thankful for my fans, all of them, and for the notes they send me:\u00a0 For the nurses, and the doctor who wrote to set me straight on a medical issue in Dance of the Bones;\u00a0 For the lady who wrote to say she had blown up a map of Cochise County until it was the size of a paperback, put it in a cellophane wrapper, and then uses it as a dust-jacket on her paperbacks so she always has a map handy when she\u2019s reading a Joanna Brady book; for the fan who was kind enough to let me know of the passing of another fan down in Oregon; for the lady who wrote to me this week to tell me that my books had been a godsend to her during the last few months when she was going through a rough patch.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019m looking forward to the holiday season\u2014the hubbub, the shopping, the decorations, the frenzy.\u00a0 I love it.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always loved it, and I\u2019m glad I still do.<\/p>\n
Happy Holidays people.\u00a0 Enjoy them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On this day after Thanksgiving I have so much to be thankful for.\u00a0 The real problem is figuring out where to start. Let\u2019s begin with all the kids and grandkids who came to Thanksgiving dinner yesterday at Grandma\u2019s house yesterday. I\u2019m thankful for the feast itself.\u00a0 Yes, there were the usual suspects on the table\u2014turkey, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[150,88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holidays","category-thanksgiving"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-hf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1069"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1072,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions\/1072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}