Most of my writing energy has been focused on churning out our Christmas letter. Except that I sort of "forgot"--read: couldn't pull it together--to send out change of address cards when we moved here, so our Christmas letter really ended up being a change of address/Thanksgiving/Christmas/explain about having cancer and moving letter. Most of my mental energy went into condensing the last 14 months into one page, front and back.

On the tail end of all of this, we were blessed to have Thanksgiving with my dh's side of the family. Hopefully, Susan will supply the photos...I've gotten out of the habit of taking them and missed some very sweet moments with all of the cousins in one place.

We love hosting, and the family made it easy...no pressure, no expectations--yet another thing to be thankful for, a family who doesn't expect me to mop before they arrive! We hung out eating delicious pre-event munchies, watching football, and perusing Black Friday ads. At one point, half the neighborhood seemed to be playing soccer in the backyard, much to the delight of my older next door neighbor (thank you for neighbors who don't fuss when the ball hits their screened porch for the umpteenth time). The only snafu was that my poor oven was struggling to keep up with the 40 pounds of side dishes in stoneware that I was trying to cook all at once, so we ate a little late. Did I mention I'm thankful that my nephews profess to love undercooked corn pudding?

My sister (Chemo Sabe extraordinaire) called (from Phoenix!) to remind me just how far we'd come...and how last year she wasn't sure I'd be here to wish a Happy Thanksgiving. It wasn't a new thought around here, and it made our day all the more joyous.

Hope yours was full of blessings, too.