Thankful for the Little Things

I’m really not all that complicated or mysterious. My husband always tells me that my instruction manual is about a page long and can be summarized in just four words: “Be nice to me.”

It’s very true that I find pleasure in small things. When my husband and I were getting ready for the Early Thanksgiving dinner that we hosted at our house yesterday, there were lots of little things that were making me very happy.

The scent of the turkey and the fixings filling the house put me in a pretty good mood. This made me count my lucky stars to have a husband who doesn’t just cook, but creates delicious feasts for our dinner guests. I later followed my bliss by thoroughly enjoying eating that mouthwatering meal. I am also glad that I enjoy turkey so much, as this would be just the first time I would be eating it this week.

I couldn’t find the nice paper dinner napkins that I was certain that I had in the house somewhere. I realized that my dinner guests were not the kind of people who would care if I used the everyday paper napkins for dinner. I had thousands of those. I appreciated my down-to-earth family and friends.

I also really enjoyed vacuuming the house with my brand new vacuum cleaner, which actually sucks up the dirt (unlike the one we recently threw away) and is self-propelling. The piece de resistance is that it also has neat storage compartments for all the attachments built right onto the vacuum itself.

As I was repositioning the living room chair that we picked up on a whim at an antique store when visiting Geneva-on-the-Lake in April, I had to stop one more time to admire it. It makes me very happy every time I look at that chair.

I realized that preparing the house for guests was actually a pleasurable experience. I loved my house one more time for being such a perfect home for us and such a welcoming place for our visitors.

On Thanksgiving we are supposed to give thanks for our blessings. I am very blessed, and I am actively grateful every day of the year for the wonderful people in my life – my husband, my son, my family and dear friends. So it is fitting that our pre-Thanksgiving dinner reminded me to also be thankful for the little things.