Even though I woke up this morning fully congested and feeling like someone is stabbing my throat with daggers, and even though I still feel like a plant in Canada on Thanksgiving, and it’s Monday…and that still feels like the wrong day to give thanks, and yet. It’s Thanksgiving and I am truly thankful and I am about to tell all about it. Please be warned: There’s some cheese ahead.

I am thankful for Indian Summer…for the Pedro the Lion song AND for the last couple days that have been so beautiful. It’s October in Canada and the kids are outside and jumping on the trampoline and we haven’t worn jackets or gloves or hats or scarves.  I am thankful for peanut butter on a spoon. I am thankful for the bus scene in Almost Famous. I am thankful for the smell of clean laundry. I am thankful for children that are mostly lovely and only sometimes make me crazypants and who pose for me when I ask beg them

and don’t complain too much. I am thankful for coffee, the true nectar of the gods. I am thankful that my shih tzu Indiana hasn’t eaten any underpants since we moved back to Canada. I am thankful for my Swiffer. I am thankful for books like The To Kill a Mockingbird. I am thankful to be living with an amazing chef who not only cooks and bakes for me, he cleans up afterwards. I am thankful for my working dishwasher. I am thankful for my sister. I am thankful for my best friend Ilana, who had herself a 29th birthday yesterday on 10-10-10 and gave us an excuse to go out and actually have a babysitter and stay out so late that the complimentary valets actually left and went home before we got our car.

I am thankful that silly bandz are cool again, because they are the best for bribery….I swear, for the price of a small rubber band, I can get my children to do just about anything. I am thankful that I have someone like Donna Cohen in my life; someone who fights cancer every single day and yet never stops smiling. I am thankful for doughnuts. I am thankful for dresses. I am thankful for Mad Men. I am thankful that I have the very best friends in the world. I am thankful for the health of my family members – – – especially the Mayor of Glendale, who is making a fantastic recovery. I am thankful for hoodies and yoga pants. I am thankful for sarcasm. I am thankful to have a job that I truly, truly love. I am thankful for TLC and the history channel. I am thankful for the internet, for introducing me to some of the very best friends a girl could ever hope for, even though they live way too far away from me.

Also, I am thankful for Dayquil. I am off to take some right now.