Sanks

I realized that over the last few days, I've forgotten the "thankful" part of my blogging. This is probably symptomatic of life: how easy it is, just a few short days after all of the thankfulness, to forget to be out-loud thankful for the things and people we've been given. As the last of the cranberry sauce and turkey leftovers disappear, the thanks fizzle away.

But the holiday season is far from over, and I'm grateful for this month's discipline, which reminds me to be thankful even when I don't particularly feel like it. To look at every day as a little thanksgiving day, lower case t.

Today I'm thankful for a chance to give gifts. Buying Christmas presents is stressful, but it is such a pleasure to spend time thinking of the people who will receive those gifts, to consider their particular likes and dislikes, to imagine their faces lighting up with the joy of a wrapped package.

I think of my nephew opening his stocking full of gifts last Christmas, at the farmhouse in Catalonia where we spent the holiday week. Every item he pulled out was greeted with this two-year-old's heartiest and most genuine "WOW!" He was thrilled each time, even before he saw or understood what the present was. Because half the fun of gifts is giving and getting them, no matter if they aren't quite what we asked for.

Today I'm also thankful for great news my sister and brother-in-law got yesterday, which boils down to: a new house! This has been a much-awaited event for their family.

Also, I have a little story about our orchestral conductor for the Messiah this weekend. He is very French. He can't pronounce "th." So when he tells us to annunciate for the "Thanks be to God" number, he yells,

"Ssssssanks! Sanks be to God!"