Some of the things for which I’m grateful this week:

1. I’m very grateful that it was only 20 below zero this morning. (and not 30. and that the windchill was minimal)
2. I have teenage boys that have been trained to shovel snow, when asked (if not on their own initiative.)
3. We only have between 6-8 inches of snow, so far.
4. I’ve grown up in this climate and know how to deal with it.
5. I have a house and resources to pay for heat
6. I work in a heated building.
7. The entire circle of family and friends is intentionally cutting back on the gift giving this year
8. I only had to spend 1.5 hours in a mall this entire shopping season
9. Hearing from friends and reading chatty Christmas letters
10. Getting to the point in the post-divorce process where I am actually looking forward to being alone on Christmas Day.
11. A little neighborhood grocery that still stocks ethnic Italian treats, like Panforte and pancetta.
12. Grocery store manager that agree that one should not have to pay almost $9 for a pound and a half of Cannellini beans and who agreed to stock a non-organic variety
13. Knowing the butcher and chatting about Christmas plans while picking up the seasonal treats of Swedish Meatball mix and herring.
14. Making two pots of soup on Saturday (tuscan white bean with winter veggie and chicken
15. DS1 actually putting “2001: A Space Odyssey” back on the Netflix “…because I wanted to see it again.” which is funny because of the way they reacted when I made them watch it before. (I wrote a post on that but can’t find it just now. huh.)
16. Being able to get this site back after some sort of server hack that used up too much CPU
17. Being able to get free (and correct?) advice about the restart problem I had with my laptop this weekend (Updated the OS and wouldn’t restart. This NEVER happens with an Mac, and yet, here I was!!!)
18. Having my work laptop at home over the weekend so I didn’t go into withdrawl not having my computer up and running.
19. Lots of laughter with friends this week
20. Giving myself permission to not go for the job, even though now I am going to apply
21. Giving myself permission to exercise my “right of rescission” on a certain contract I signed a week-ago Saturday.
22. Only having to bring waldorf salad and squash to Christmas Eve dinner
23. Having mom and sister ask sympathetically about me picking up great-grandma and understanding when I told them when I would need to leave in order to be at church
24. Being totally “behind” of where I “should be” in preparing for the holidays and not being bothered by it much at all.
25. Continuing to lose weight through this season
26. Looking forward to getting back to the gym (!!! I KNOW!!!)
27. I am very VERY grateful that the solstice has now arrived which means that now there will be more and more daylight. Incremental, I know, but every few minutes counts.

Wow. I guess it is the season.