In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I submit this week's blog.

I literally could write a gratitude list that does not end, so, I hope all my friends and family know how thankful I am for their presence in my life.  I am just listing a few, but this list is not all inclusive:>  (In other words, don't be offended if you're not listed, you are, I just ran out of space.)

I am thankful for:

• Brittany, for making popcorn for us when we watch TV, and then asking me to "help" her make it.
• Tyler, for going to see Harry Potter with me, even though it was obvious he was embarassed to be with his mom at the movie theater.
• Kayla, for living her life with clarity, joy and purpose, and for coming home on Thanksgiving and spending so much time with her family.
• Tom, for helping me move my mom into a new apartment on the day after Thanksgiving, and never complaining even once.
• my Mom, for giving me lots of stories to tell, and for teaching me forgiveness and how to laugh at the hard things in life.
• my Dad, for being one of the few people who I can really talk to, and for making sure to spend as much time as he can with the kids when we're together, teaching them card games, poker, and really being there with the kids.
• Jane, for making my dad so happy.
• Denny, for making me laugh every time I talk to him, and for not getting mad at me when I forget his birthday.
• Julie, for making me laugh every time I talk to her, and for having the best sister talks in the world.
• Barb, for whatever she did to raise her son to be such a great husband and father, and for being one of the best people in my life.
• Audra, for making my brother so happy, and bringing Ebben into this world.
• Todd, for making my sister so happy, and for bringing 3 more boys into our family.
• my work, for allowing me to do what I love, and to support my family while doing it.
• my students, for bringing me true joy in my work, and for inspiring me to work as hard as they do for their success.
• my church, for making me feel like I'm part of a greater family.
• my God, for grace. 

My cup overfloweth...

The Annual Giving of Thanks

I told Mom last week that I knew I was growing up because all I want is to be home for the holidays. Thanksgiving day we drove up to Wakefield to see the whole family and overeat, just like every year before. Sunday night before I came back to MN, we decorated the Christmas tree as a family while drinking hot chocolate, just like every year before. Thank God for traditions. Whether it be hanging ornaments on a lit tree or hearing Gramma Barb sing about the "big, fat turkey on Grandfather's farm" after overindulging in pumpkin pie and Grands, traditions keep your family's idiosynchracies alive and thriving even in the midst of change. (Enter college!) So, this is my preface to talking about the first holiday where I had to "come home," and how incredibly great it was. Enter blog:

First, don't travel by bus near the holidays. Every seat will be taken, you will have to sit on a broken seat by someone who will, of course, fall asleep and thus, will spill over onto your side during the trip that will take 90 minutes longer than expected. Though, seeing Dad waiting in the frigid cold outside at the bus stop the second we arrived made me instantly forget how crowded and uncomfortable I had felt for the past 5 hours, I was simply so happy to be home.

Thanksgiving Day, in addition to being filled with pinwheels, potatoes, turkey, a cranberry mold (yes Mom, the cranberry mold is worthy enough to be in the blog. It was delicious and looked cool), and me sharing my college stories (this means the stories of the famous Foam Party) with the aunts and cousins, it also left me thinking about everything I had to be thankful for. First, the opportunities I am offered every day attending college in a city, and the experiences I've had and will have that will create lasting memories. I know many people would love to be where I am, and really don't want to take being here for granted. And of course, even more importantly, I am so extremely thankful for the people in my life who I love. These past few months being on my own have really made me realize how truly blessed I am to have a life filled with people who love me, support me, inspire me, make me laugh (or cry in a good way), listen to my issues, offer advice, step in when needed, and have personalities and quirks that I can't imagine not being present in my life: Mom & Dad (you know how important you are to me, a blog can't even begin to describe it), Ty (still as smart-aleky as ever, but I know that your cry for help on the definition of the word "thoroughfare" was really code for "I love you Sis!"), Britty (even though my old wardrobe has found a new home in your closet and I kick your butt at ping-pong, we rock as being sisters, right? GloZell would agree), my beautiful best friends from home who I've missed to my heart's core (I love how nothing has changed, we still sit around, eat, do nothing, watch Titanic and laugh about EVERYTHING, even our dad's names), the incredible boyfriend (we just rock mi hombre, people are jealous of how fantastic we go together...and not to mention how fine we look together, too), and of course, a fabulous new addition to this list, my terrific new friends here at the U (we do things like a boss, brought back Britney, invented socioproductivity, well...just see the last 3 months of Facebook statuses.) Honestly, SO much to be thankful for.

Alright, snap back to reality. Literally, coming back from a 6-day break for like, 14 days of class, studying, and finals is just...mer. BUT, an exciting aspect to my return was moving in a new roomate! Hey Marina :) The first day we met, way back in September on the first day of Freshman Seminar, we realized we were scary similar. Like, if we were to make a Venn-Diagram of "Kayla and Marina," it would be an almond, only the middle part. We both are coffee-afficionados (holla!), weirdly in love with our professor's mind, from Wisco, are blonde, die-hard for the green&gold, are in honors yet ironically terrible procrastinators...the list goes on. So, we told Frontier Hall what was up, that we were meant to live together, and proceeded to totally deck the halls of our newly-reorganized room. We went all out-- Christmas lights, a mini tree, candy canes, paper snowflakes, Christmas smells (no! we do NOT have an illegal candle that is holiday scented!), and even a Poinsettia! (It's practice for the fish we want to get.)

Let me wrap up this all-over-the-place blog with a little wisdom from this professor that we both really enjoy...let's call him Pat. He is my favorite professor here so far, and his class feels the most "college-esque." He really makes me think and I always walk away from class feeling really inquisitive and scholarly. So, instead of class yesterday, we had individual meetings with him to discuss our final papers. I'm writing mine on why only 35% of students who go to four-year universities actually get their degree in four years. We got to talking about why our society set the 4-year standard of graduation in the first place and he said this, "You know, if you think about it, college is the only time in your life where society actually wants you to think and figure stuff out for yourself. You have your whole life to work, to follow society's rules, but here they are actually approving of you being in a setting where you have the ability to challenge anything you want!" Take from it what you will, but this statement really spoke to me for some reason, and kinda fits in my previous theme of giving thanks...for the right here and right now.