Thanks.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving (and in the spirit of not losing all my readers as a result of only posting links and photos for the past month), I have composed a list of people and experiences for which I am thankful this year:

I am thankful for my friends on the west coast who supported me in my move across the country even when it meant that we would no longer be in each other’s lives on a regular basis. I am thankful for good cooking and Survivor nights and conference crises met with good humor and the opportunities and challenges I faced while working out there. I’m thankful for the amazing volunteer opportunities I had while living in the Bay Area, and the incredible people with whom I came in contact through those opportunities. I am thankful for the renewing of old friendships, and for days at the beach, and days by the pool (neither of which I had enough of in my California life!). And I am thankful to the friends from the west coast who have made it out here and made it a point to get together.

I am thankful for my family - my sister for road tripping across the country with me, and my parents for their never-ending unconditional support. I am thankful for my aunt and uncle for letting me do dresser restoration in their garage and to my second cousin for being sure to call me when she came to town last weekend so we could catch up. I am thankful for my grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins – both the ones we were able to see on our road trip and who opened up their homes and hearts to us along the way – and the ones who didn’t fall along our path.

I am thankful for the friends and families with whom I have connected (or reconnected) here on the east coast. I am thankful for the friends who have motivated me to get out of the city and up to Vermont, for the friends who have motivated themselves to come into the city to visit, and for the friends who have helped me get out and see bits of Boston I otherwise would not have made time to see. I am thankful for all the amazing families for whom I babysit, and the children who bring joy to my life each week with their cute nicknames for me (“Feedee”) and hugs and giggles. I am thankful to the friends who keep trying to see me despite me being too busy with school work to have a life, and to friends who I only knew tangentially, who have made efforts to get to know me better and invite me to be part of their lives since I’ve returned to this coast.

And I am thankful for everyone in between – the amazing women I reconnected with at our camp’s 100th celebration, and the dear friends who honored me so greatly by allowing me to officiate their marriage this fall.

It has been an incredible year, and I am so grateful to the many people who have made it so. I hope that people I know who read this blog see themselves somewhere above, because what I am trying to say with my comprehensive list is that if you were in any way a part of my life in this past year, I am thankful for whatever role you played.

Much love and appreciation to everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving.