Thank You

I'm actually kind of bad at saying thank you.
Yesterday alone, I should have said "thank you" at least three times, but I didn't.

Rando alternative Starbucks employee buys me a coffee before he starts his shift.
"What? Why did you do that?" 
Peter tells me I look nice.
"Yeah right."
My boss tells me I'm thankful for you.
"Right back at you."

Why is "thank you" so hard to say sometimes?
Is it our lack of humility?
Is it the conviction that we can do it better ourselves?
Is it the thought that we don't want punks hitting on us at 6:00 AM?

"Thank you" is so hard to say that there is an entire stationary category devoted to helping people express it better; there are business courses dedicated to teaching managers how to say it to their employees; and there is a national holiday demanding people say it.

On Thursday, our nation's Thanksgiving Day, I had a lot to be thankful for. I could have said "thank you" all day long, everywhere I went, to just about everyone that I met. But I didn't dish out quite as many "thank you's" as the world around me deserved.

So a little late ... but with no less heart, here are five "THANK YOU's." In my opinion, these are the best Thanksgiving leftovers I could make this evening even though my turkey soup hit the spot.

Thank you for food lovingly prepared.

By me (even though it didn't turn out the way I planned.)

And by others ... focus in on that amazing bird behind the beautiful people in this photo.

Thank you to family who always cares. 

Enough so that they came all the way to Chicago to be with me for Thanksgiving ...  AND for first time EVER my Mom played cards with us!

Thank you for friends who always care.

Even when they can't be ... they are in spirit, memories and laughter.

Thank you for my fiance whose life I want to share.

And thank you for forgiveness when it didn't seem to be anywhere. 

(If there was a picture to go along with this one - imagine your worst nightmare, then add rain, darkness, thousands and thousand of dollars lost within it, despair, hopelessness, and a team of Jewel-Osco employees who couldn't do anything about it ... then through the tears you see a slight glimmer, a diamond in the rough, a second chance. 

Tonight, I owe a big "thank you" to Where's Waldo, Word Search, and What's Missing in this Picture - those games that brought out the eagle in my eyes and that restored the missing piece to my ring finger. 

Lo.