I am thankful for my smart, funny and charming husband. I am thankful for the years he selflessly held us together while never making me feel inadequate. I am thankful for his companionship, his commitment to our partnership, and his unending loyalty, support, and love.

I am thankful for my parents. For all the words of wisdom and encouragement when I need them most. For instilling in me the belief that there is nothing I can’t do. For loving me unconditionally. For letting me find my own way, but always being there for me when I need them.

I am thankful for my sis. For checking in on me nearly every day to see how I am doing – regardless of what is going on in her life. I am thankful that she loves me completely without expecting anything in return. I am thankful for our sister lunches and the quality time we spend together.

I am thankful for all my family – My Granny, Aunts, Uncles, Nieces, Nephews, Cousins, and for the family I married into. I scored with my in-laws! I understand how fortunate I am to have such a loving extended family, and I am very thankful for each and every one of them.

I am thankful for my friends – old & new. My friends who know me sometimes better than my family. My friends who love and support me regardless of what I am able to contribute to our friendship. My friends who understand when I need to cancel a lunch date or head home early from an evening out. I am thankful for my awesome friends!

I am thankful for my new job, and for my new boss for seeing in me the potential to shine in his company, and for giving me the tools to do so. I am going to be a rockstar!

I am thankful for my Casey girl. I miss her so much this Thanksgiving. The first one without her in 14 years. I will miss her big soulful brown eyes pleading with me to share some Thanksgiving dinner. I will miss the way she greets all of our guests with joyful abandon. I will miss the gentle way she had with my Granny. I will miss the sound of her snoring after a long day of socializing with family. I miss her a lot – and am so thankful for the years we had together.

I am thankful for our current crazy critters – all four of them – and their unique and joyful personalities. Life is not dull around here.

I am thankful for the warm cup of coffee I am currently sipping, the fuzzy slippers on my feet, the blue sky out my window, and the waves crashing on the beach just down the street.

I am thankful for the potential of today and the promise of tomorrow.

I am thankful for the swirl of words in my head, and for my cold but nimble fingers that eagerly guide them to this page.

I am thankful for this page, and the many other pages that make up my blog. I am thankful for FibroHaven, in all its components.

And I am thankful for you! Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. It is a greater honor to me than you will ever know. Thank you if you have ever left a comment. Thank you if we have connected on twitter or facebook. Thank you for allowing my voice into your life.

Finally, I am thankful for everything that has happened in my life to lead me exactly where I am today – full of potential and promise.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is over. All the work, and the cleaning, and the cooking, and chaos that is Thanksgiving, it is over. All that is left is to heal (and some really yummy leftovers).

I am tired and sore, but I feel good. It was such a nice day and everyone was a huge help. It was like a crazy ant farm in my kitchen in the moments leading up to dinner, and then again during the clean up. I just love all the chaos of bumping elbows and the buzz of ten different conversations going on at one time. I feed off the energy. My Uncle said grace for dinner and I could just hear him over Joe Buck’s commentary on the TV about Tony Romo’s finger. Family, food and football – that is Thanksgiving! Despite the Fibromyalgia, I am one lucky girl and I am thankful that I have such a loving and supportive family.

Here is some of what Thanksgiving reminds me to be grateful for.

• Standing side by side at the stove with my 88 year old Granny making awesome homemade noodles and gravy.
• Listening to my Dad and Husband complaining about how bad the football games are.
• Watching my Aunt and Uncle cuddling together in a chair while their newlywed daughter sits close by holding hands with her husband. Passing down the love!
• Listening to my oh-so-smart cousin talk about the things he is passionate about – music, books & writing.
• Sharing a glass of wine and some cheer with my mother-in-law and her husband.
• Accepting compliments and gratitude from my step-mom.
• Passing down the honor of stuffing the celery to my beautiful niece and noticing that this is the first year she didn’t show me she can stick black olives onto all of her fingertips.
• Laughing with my sister. And oh there was plenty to laugh about.

Like the eggs, the beautiful and yummy deviled eggs that she brings every year. This year they didn’t travel so well and when they arrived they looked like this.

But my sis, she has skills, and somehow she was able to transform them back into this.

A miracle I tell you!  And don’t they look lovely on the crystal egg plate that used to belong to our Granny?

My sis always finds a way to make me laugh.

She has done some crazy stuff over the years, like mailing me her pee stick when she found out she was pregnant with my niece, and now that very niece has become her cohort in crime.

So as the day was winding down I was TIRED and just slightly off my game. I had bought this yummy Pomegranate Italian Soda, and the plan was to mix it with a little of the vodka in my freezer and chill out after all the work, but I just wasn’t in the mood for alcohol. But for some reason my 13-year-old niece kept trying to talk me into it. “Auntie, I think you should make a drink now,” she said to me about thirty times, and then she would just stand there with a smirk on her face until I yelled “WHAT!” This went on for about three hours, and never once did I catch on that she was trying to get me to look in the freezer.

Finally my sis asked for a Pomegranate Italian Soda and vodka, so I opened the freezer, took out the vodka, and poured her a drink. When I turned around to take it to her, my niece was standing there with her hands on her hips looking like she wanted to kill me. “WHAT!” I said for the hundredth time. “Oh Auntie, just look in the freezer!”

OH THE HORROR! Some how, in my tired stupor, when I opened the freezer I had missed it – the headless Dexter doll! It took a second for my brain to register what was going on, and then it all made sense – the bag my niece took with her into the kitchen after dinner, the gentle nudges to get me to make a drink, and the ice cream! Hadn’t she told me about 20 times that she was ready for ice cream? It was all coming together and it made me happy – happy that my sister’s silliness was rubbing off on her daughter and happy that they took the time to set up this little prank.

So I screamed! A loud, playful scream and everyone came running to see what was going on. Fortunately my entire family loves Dexter so we all got a great laugh out of it. Just before they left my niece told me she noticed that I seemed to have more energy after their little prank and she was right. I did. Thanks for that you two! It was a great end to a great day.  I love Thanksgiving!

P.S.

For breakfast Friday morning I was barely coherent and in a thick fibrofog, so Rob made us Stuffing Omelets. OMG they were delicious!  A little recipe he learned from Sam the Cooking Guy.  Seriously, you should try them.  Excellent with a side of potato pancakes and some ham.

From Sam:

You’re laughing right? Well I’m serious about how good this is – so don’t laugh until you’ve tried it. This is maybe a twice-a-year recipe. It’s for the morning after Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner – and it requires that you still have some stuffing left – and frankly is the best reason to make extra.

Ingredients

• 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 slice Kraft American cheese (you can use any kind you like, but this kinda makes it)
• 1/3 cup (approx) leftover stuffing, room temp

Steps

1. Beat the eggs well in a bowl
2. Melt butter in a non-stick pan over medium heat, and add eggs.
3. If making a true omelette, allow the eggs to set – add stuffing to one half, cover with cheese and flip one side over making a half moon & cook to desired doneness (desired doneness for me is not too dry)
4. Or, cook as scrambled eggs – adding the stuffing when you would normally add other ingredients and then cook until desired doneness – which is still not too dry
5. Put on a plate and enjoy
6. Wait for next year

Note: No the turkeys do not have Fibromyalgia, I DO! (and bad grammar too).

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am hosting for 16 members of my family.  This is my fourth consecutive year doing so. I love hosting, and I love spending time with my family, and I would not willingly give up the honor of having them all here tomorrow, but there is always the Fibromyalgia to consider.  It is always there, like a big-old-ugly party pooper just waiting to smash me with its mallet of pain.  I have to consider it in everything I do, otherwise there is nothing left to consider, I am just down for the count, period.

So here are some of the things I have learned to do to help make sure that the day is a success for everyone, including myself.

Start early.

I start preparing for everything a couple of weeks ahead of time. Doing whatever I can ahead of time makes my life so much easier – wash the linens and serving platters, wipe down the folding chairs, etc. Not only does it help reduce my stress as Thanksgiving Day approaches because I have less to do, but it forces me to be organized.

Make lists.

I have grocery lists, and cleaning lists, and lists for my husband – lists, lists, lists! It may sound like overkill, but when my brain shuts down, as it tends to do with Fibrolmyalgia, where would I be without my lists? They give me direction and purpose when I get confused and overwhelmed. And they are constantly changing and evolving. If I hadn’t left my camera at a friend’s I would take a photo of my shopping list for you to see. It is a color-coded thing of beauty!

Ask for help and accept unsolicited help.

Granny makes the homemade noodles and dressing, my Aunt makes the pies. My sister and mother-in-law also contribute. And my Dad, well he contributes where it hurts the most, the pocket book! Really everyone pitches in. Even my newly married cousin asked what she could bring this year. It made me proud and a little sad that she is so grown up.

For the last few days I have had the best little helper, my niece. She is 13 going on 30 and is wonderful to have around. Poor little thing, she has no idea she is going to be pulling weeds today.

Don’t sweat the small stuff

This has been the hardest thing for me to overcome. I am a control freak. I like every little thing in its place. I could have been Martha Stewart’s maid in a former life. Seriously, I used to fret if one of my books was a centimeter out of line on my bookshelf. Fibromyalgia has forced me to get over this. I do not have the strength, the energy, or the brainpower to live like that anymore.

So when the family gets here tomorrow and there is a dust bunny that crawls out from under the sofa, I am not going to panic or apologize like I once did. Heck, I might not even pick it up. What do you expect? I have four pets. Get over it!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Note 2: No turkeys were harmed in the production of this post.  But tomorrow, that’s another story.