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It’s a typical Sunday morning, and while it’s sunny and beautiful outside, it’s officially the start of what Sheila calls Skip’s Winter Whining Mode! It’s a bone-chilling fifty-three outside, LOL, which means flannel shirts with shorts weather. We moved to Florida originally so we could give my Dad a little help fighting Mom’s Alzheimer’s, but over five years I’ve become a true Floridian.  I rarely miss an opportunity to complain about the cold and the traffic, as the “snowbirds” return!

This morning I woke up thinking about Thanksgiving. This was always a special time down here because my folks would join us. In the aftermath of them both having passed away, the holiday isn’t quite the same. For the second year in a row we’re celebrating on Sunday rather than Thanksgiving day, because two of our best friends are in the restaurant business and working on Thanksgiving. We haven’t lost the meaning of the day, just moved it.

While we never did this when I was a kid, at a Thanksgiving dinner somewhere over the years we started going around the table with everybody talking about what they were thankful for. I always enjoyed it, because it put the focus on the true meaning of the day, rather than one more excuse to over eat!

So, mixing sincerity, love and sarcasm, here’s a small sampling of things I’m thankful for as 2016 starts to wind down…

• Always first on the list is being thankful for having Sheila in my life, but it’s more than her just becoming my very best friend over the last nine years. It’s about all the smiles, laughs, hugs and tears we’ve shared. We’ve never missed being there for each other.
• I’m thankful for getting older. Yeah, while so many of you wish you were younger and could turn back the clock, I love being in my sixties with the attitude of a sarcastic twenty-five year old! You’re only as old as your attitude and we’ve met plenty of people down here who are physically younger, but have an approach to life that qualifies them for a nursing home!
• I’m thankful for all of you, the SCU partners and having stumbled on a career field that’s been my loyal mistress for forty-six years! There’s NOTHING like our industry. I’ve been blessed to cross paths with amazing people, learned from them and seem to expand my own skill set almost every day.
• I’m thankful to be an American, and while many of you are doom and gloom over the election results, here are some things to think about. A friend, who I respect and Senior VP at our bank, said before the election, “We’re going to have to just accept whoever wins is going to be unpopular, but business and life are going to go on!”  And even without the truth in his comment, if you’re not happy being in this country, where would you go that’s better?

• And speaking of elections, here comes a little sarcasm with a public service announcement. I’m thankful for NoMoRobo.com ! We didn’t get one single political telemarketing call on our home line through the entire election! With NoMoRobo the phone rings once and then stops. So, even those annoying telemarketing calls from the “Microsoft Tech Team” or “Rachel at Card Services” have disappeared!
• Last on the list of my Thanksgiving sampler is being thankful for the pure joy I wake up with every morning. I’m thankful for this amazing life that surprises me every day. I’m thankful for an amazing circle of friends and some truly wonderful family members who understand the true meaning of love. And, for those judgemental family members who have done their best to administer a little pain here and there – I’m thankful I was able to do a relative-ectomy and have you removed. As a sign in our kitchen says, “Don’t judge people by their relatives!”

On that note it’s time to enjoy the day. Sheila’s up and Molly the Wonder Dog has that look in her eyes letting me know it’s time to get off the computer.  Wishing all of you a wonderful Sunday. Safe travels if you’re heading out early for the Thanksgiving holiday, and as always plenty of time with the people you care most about for those eleven-second hugs!

Happy Sunday everybody – thank you for being such an important part of my life.