I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  I know we did.  We enjoyed a big family meal with my husband’s side of the family and shopping on Friday.  We spent Saturday traveling home and on Sunday we could put up our tree.

I really love that we have a whole holiday set aside to think about all the things we are thankful for.  Yes, we should be thankful every single day but sometimes in the bustle of everyday life we just forget.

On Thursday it was so easy to remember all the things we were thankful for.

Owen can walk!  It wasn’t certain that he would.  There are still times over two years after he started walking that I still look at him and marvel at what a miracle it is.  Not everyone gets to appreciate how awesome walking is, because they never doubt they will.

We have a new family member this year, Hannah, my beautiful niece.  Adoption is a beautiful thing.  After years and years of waiting for their children, my sister and her husband watched their family grow by two in less than two years.  What a blessing!

I have an awesome husband who loves our son so much.  He helps out around the house and works full time yet he still finds time every single day to let Owen know how much he is loved.

We have a home and heat and food to eat.  Not everyone can say that.

We have Owen.  The one thing I am most thankful for is him, being his mommy has changed me and only for the better.  I am more patient, kind, and loving.

It was even easy to remember how blessed we are on Friday.

We have money to buy gifts.

We have cars to drive to the mall.

I am getting an awesome pair of boots for Christmas!

But just like always, it doesn’t take long for the thankfulness to wear off.  Traveling on Saturday was tiring and then when we got home I still had to go out and get groceries.  It was late until I got to settle in at home and I was tired.

On Sunday I woke in a better mood.  I was so excited to decorate the tree.  Owen had practiced helping his cousins decorate the tree at Nana’s house on Friday so I thought he would be all ready and know exactly what to do.  But what Owen really wanted to do was play on his iPad.  He really had no interest in decorating with us.  Then when Justin finally got him away from the iPad and interested in helping, I made the mistake of trying to play some Christmas music on my computer which just made him want to play on that instead of decorating the tree.

I had been so excited and now it just seemed like a struggle.  There are so many things other families get to do that are difficult for us.  Every year I think that maybe the next year Owen will be excited about Christmas and the tree.  Every year I end up disappointed.

I started to pout and I very nearly ruined the whole day.  Sometimes I can’t let go of my wishes for things.  I know better.  One of the tricks to being a special needs parent is learning how to just go with the flow and let your child be who they are.  This is getting much easier over time, most of the time I don’t even think about it.  But holidays are full of traditions and it is hard when you can’t do what everyone else can.

The good news is, Justin encouraged Owen a bit to come around to our way of thinking and with a little bit of creativity and Owen’s ideas about decorating we ended up having a nice time.  I will always remember the moment when Owen picked out an ornament and his daddy asked him where he would like to put it and he said “up” (o.k. maybe what he really said was “aba” which is how he says b since we are still working on actual words) and Justin picked Owen up and reached high into the tree.  Owen was so proud to place the ornament way up there…  and a new decorating tradition was born!

Oh yeah, I thought of something else to be thankful for, a husband who can make even the most frustrating moments into fun memories!