Sunday, December 29, 2013

all good things: holiday sparknotes edition

Since I'm in transit tonight, and since it has been a week of widespread celebrations, I'm going to do the List a little differently. A song, a photo, a holiday, a party, and a challenge for you, readers, as we get ready for a new year this week.

Song of the week: Timber by Pitbull and Ke$ha. The pump-up anthem in the bride's room before yesterday's wedding. Also what kept me from getting motion sick during landing on the homebound flights. This short video in particular makes me smile every time.

A wedding! As you may have guessed by the mention of the bride, there was a long-anticipated wedding this weekend! The couple brought a lot of incredible people together for a few days of wonderfully intense eating, drinking, and being merry/married (har har)... And to be witness to an incredible event for two people we love with all our hearts.

Christmas! This has been a cause for celebration all over the world this week. Families gathered, shared food and gifts and quality time together, and people spread happy holiday feelings all week long! Plus, my dad played a part in a real-life modern day Christmas story this week, which I hope to share when I get back to my same-old.

...And a beautiful photo to say goodnight! Taken just before landing in Atlanta on our way home:


Thanks for tuning in this week. Share your good things and stories in the comments. Make the most of what's left of this year, make some good resolutions, do the celebration justice, and I'll see you in 2014!

posted from Bloggeroid

Sunday, December 22, 2013

all good things: the fourth candle

All Good Things is a weekly feature on the blog. It started as a one-hour Sunday night radio show on KSTO St. Olaf radio, featuring feel-good music and 10 highlights from the past week. The show, and its current written form, is brought to you by Clara, Second Set of Baby Steps creator, and my radio co-host Cassie. Sit back and enjoy!

1. Song of the week: The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson. Yesterday on the train I kept hearing someone singing this song and finally realized it was my sister. We all got a good laugh out of that. And then it got stuck in all our heads, and on the way back the guy next to us started whistling the song too. Contagious feel-good jams!

2. Full house! I'm not talking about the TV show right now, nor a winning hand in Poker or Yahtzee. This week is the first time since August that all four of us kids are home, and I have thoroughly enjoyed spending a lot of quality time with my crazy-awesome sibs.

3. Taking the train to Philly! Yesterday we went up to Philadelphia's Christmas Village, and instead of braving the ridiculous holiday traffic we took the SEPTA train to Center City, right from Wilmington! It was only $10 round trip, per person, and we kinda got to sleep on the way home. We will definitely be doing that again.

3. The Christmas Village. This is awesome every year: the hot spiced wine, cute artisan shops and crafts, holiday spirit... And good company! Plus, this year we ran into Jamal playing Christmas carols on his saxophone. :)


4. Holiday parties. Wednesday was our work party in Philly, which is always fun. I work with really smart, interesting people so it's good to spend some non-working time with them. And then last night was the first holiday party of the year (officially ending my birthday season) and it was a lovely gathering of lovely people, in a house that smelled like Christmas spices. We also did a girls' lunch today, and the church Christmas pageant this afternoon, and roomie Christmas tonight. The next week and a half will be full of more parties and festivities and I am so excited for it all.

5. RadioLab this afternoon. RadioLab is this psychology show on NPR on Sunday afternoons, and I nerd out to it as often as I can. Today they were talking about hero psychology, what makes people risk their lives to help other people. I was totally captivated, but I literally felt a weight off my shoulders when the guy who runs the Carnegie Hero Fund said this: "We are fortunate to be living in a society, regardless of what you might hear elsewhere, we are fortunate to be living in a society where people do look out for others, even strangers."

6. Football in the snow. Watching the Steelers play Green Bay in the snow today was somehow so magical. And it looks very cold. And it's bizarre, when it's been over 70 degrees here for the past two days...

7. The dress came just in time! My bridesmaid dress for the wedding this Saturday was snatched off my porch last month, so it had to be reordered from the style that was in stock at the designer in China. We weren't sure it was going to come in time, but it turned up on Thursday - with barely enough time to get it altered before Christmas. Phew! Crisis averted.

8. Being done Christmas shopping. J and I are pretty much done with our shopping, and done wrapping too!

To be clear, I am done wrapping. I wrapped all the gifts, because if he did it they would all be in DSW bags with no tissue paper.

9. Reading. I have been making a point of reading lately, since I got Ender's Game from the library. So far it's awesome. Also, since we finished reading Big Fish together we haven't been reading, but just yesterday J picked up the Chronicles of Narnia (a Christmas gift from last year) so we're reading that now and I think I'm enjoying it even more this time than I did the first time I read it.

10. Happy holiday encounters. This year I have so far not come face-to-face with stressed-out thoughtless people in holiday zombie mode; on the contrary, I have had one pleasant encounter after another. (Knock on wood...) I am determined to make it to the new year this way: may good cheer abound!



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Thank you, readers, for being with us tonight, and for giving me reasons to write, and things to write about.

And thanks for joining us every Sunday night! Join the Baby Steps on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TheBabyStepsSaga for good things every day, and updates on new posts. Come back next week for another reminder of 10 more things to be thankful for!

Until then, be kind to each other, and find a reason to smile!

posted from Bloggeroid

Thursday, December 19, 2013

a real christmas story

Last night, instead of blogging, I made a bunch of stops to hammer out my Christmas shopping. I had a list of four places to go - an ambitious goal for a weeknight. J. did offer to help, and cut it down to three stops, and I had left place #2 telling him I'd be home within a half hour. I was breezing through my last stop, the craft store, and feeling optimistic about my ETA when a man approached me, looking concerned, and asked, "You read English?"

I said I did, and he beckoned for me to follow him. "Español? Poquitito?"

"Sí," I responded.

He led me into the educational toys and books aisle and asked me to read for him the titles and features of different books. "In English. Slow." He was determined to get the perfect book to help his young daughter learn how to read - in English. Something he couldn't do.

"Your Spanish is good," he said with a smile, so I started using more Spanish words in our conversation. He told me I didn't have to translate the book descriptions, just read them. Slowly.

Gradually, though, our conversation switched almost completely to Spanish. He started asking about beads, the ones you arrange in little designs and then iron together. "What's the age limit on this?" he asked. We started exchanging vocabulary words: bucket. Cubeta.

Then he asked me to write down the names and prices of the different bead kits, so his wife could come back later and choose one. He only had fifteen dollars with him. He didn't make it to the bank before it closed.

When he had made his decision, he smiled broadly and thanked me profusely. "You should come here more often," he laughed, and told me he has been looking for a fire truck toy for his little son. I remembered the wooden fire trucks in my grandparents' house, and the elaborate toys that used to appear under our Christmas tree with my brother's name on them. My heart broke, just a little.

"Feliz navidad," he said, more than once, smiling like crazy. "Jorge," and reached out to shake my hand. "Clara." "Mucho gusto." "Mucho gusto."

"Feliz navidad to you too, and your family," I said.

He couldn't stop smiling. "And to yours as well!" And he gave me a hug, and thanked me again, and said merry Christmas one more time, and we went our separate ways.

Happy holidays to you and yours. I hope the holiday spirit touches you in some way this season.

posted from Bloggeroid

Sunday, December 15, 2013

all good things: winter wonderland

All Good Things is a weekly feature on the blog. It started as a one-hour Sunday night radio show on KSTO St. Olaf radio, featuring feel-good music and 10 highlights from the past week. The show, and its current written form, is brought to you by Clara, Second Set of Baby Steps creator, and my radio co-host Cassie. Sit back and enjoy!

1. Song of the week: All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey, Jimmy Fallon and the Roots. Another reader request! Thanks to you guys, All Good Things is really getting in the Christmas spirit!


2. Girls With Slingshots. My brother gave me the print Volume 2 of this web comic, hoping to get me hooked... And it worked! I blazed through the 200 strips and wish the book was so much longer. Guess I'm on to the website now...

3. Cookie baking for Christmas. My mom, grandma and I pick a Saturday before Christmas and bake all day while listening to Christmas music. It's so fun!

For me (this is Clara now) cookie baking is also becoming a great tradition: J's sister has a bunch of people over every year to bake and package a TON of cookies in cute tins. It's a great opportunity to try out new recipes and hang out with great people. This year we made over 300 cookies (not counting the ones we ate in the process), and at least 8 different kinds!


4. My (Cassie's) wedding photos just came back and I'm having the best time going through them!

5. Law & Order SVU marathons. I could probably watch them for days :)

6. Video G-chat. It's kept me in touch with some of my favorite people who are very far away. Love it!

7. Snow days. We had two big snowstorms (by Delaware standards)this week, which closed a lot of the city including my office and J's coffee shop on Tuesday! So we got to stay home, bake, make chili, watch movies, and cuddle all day.


8. Potluck. Like the good Minnesota Lutheran girl that lives somewhere inside me, I love a good potluck. We have them every now and then at work, and there are always interesting exotic dishes like authentic homemade chicken tikka, good English shepherd's pie, chili, Caesar salad, and pierogies.

9. Longwood Gardens. This has become a bit of a tradition, since my roommate goes to great lengths to get a group of us to the gardens every spring and every Christmas. It's always beautiful, peaceful, centering.


10. On Saturday morning I finally got to chat on the phone with an old friend. We've been trying to find time for a good long talk for months now. We spent two hours (give or take) on the phone just talking about everything in our lives, and it was so easy and important. She's never sounded happier, and I've never been more comfortable in my life. These are big steps for both of us, and it's so heartwarming to be able to share our lives even over a long time and great distance.

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Thank you, readers, for being with us tonight, and for giving me reasons to write, and things to write about.

And thanks for joining us every Sunday night! Join the Baby Steps on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TheBabyStepsSaga for good things every day, and updates on new posts. Come back next week for another reminder of 10 more things to be thankful for!

Until then, be kind to each other, and find a reason to smile!
posted from Bloggeroid

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

devo: the people in my life

I was toying with the idea of taking the blog on vacation this month, but I decided to just do something simple instead. I've been really inspired by Gettysburg Seminary's advent calendar photo challenge, and Organic Faith Online's DIY advent devotionals. It's reminding me how important it is to pause for reflectipon, to put some serious intention behind thought or action.

Yesterday my mom and I had a long conversation about worry, which turned into a conversation about relationships. The turning point was when she said she's been managing her worry a little better lately, in large part due to regular Skype conversations with an old friend from high school. These conversations always end in prayer.

Speaking of intentional reflection.

To me there is something worshipful in routines like this one. Like Wednesday morning breakfast with my friend Mary, all four years of college. We get together and are present together. This is a critical part of being human, and relishing in our humanity instead of being discouraged by it. My mom mentioned this too.

As I get more familiar with my new phone, I am learning how to use Google Now, which in my opinion is an incredibly useful, somewhat creepy program with an explosive amount of potential. I could go on forever about this, probably, but the interesting part in today's context is that last night my phone gave me directions and a travel time to Marina's house, where I went last Thursday evening for movies and tea. Although there is a definite element of creepiness to this, I like that this encourages routines of getting together, eating together, laughing together, and talking about things that impact our lives.

I am feeling deeply appreciative lately for the people in my life. I have a great family and great friends all over the world, and they are doing incredible things, and have enriched my life in ways that continue to amaze me.

This is my devotional this week. Love. Be thankful. Be a part of the lives of other people, and I mean be active about it. Don't take anything for granted, and if you're ever thinking of someone, for any reason, send a message. It makes a difference.


posted from Bloggeroid

Sunday, December 8, 2013

all good things: headlong into december

All Good Things is a weekly feature on the blog. It started as a one-hour Sunday night radio show on KSTO St. Olaf radio, featuring feel-good music and 10 highlights from the past week. The show, and its current written form, is brought to you by Clara, Second Set of Baby Steps creator, and my radio co-host Cassie. Sit back and enjoy!

1. Songs of the week. This week I have been remembering the mood-boosting power of loud, un-self-conscious karaoke-style singing... Or maybe "singing" in quotes would be more accurate. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays was a reader request (!) this week, so I decided to go back to the good old playlist days and kick off a feel-good lineup with this generation's favorite Christmas song :)

Incidentally, that N'SYNC hit featured heavily in the fifth grade Christmas concert at Clara S. Bacon Elementary School. Most of my friends had solos in it, and there was a lot of step-clapping on the risers.

Welcome to 1999...

2. World's End. I wasn't entirely expecting to like this movie, but I've heard from a decent number of people that it's a must-watch, and J. wanted to buy it. So we went out and got it (and beer, which we heard is necessary while watching this film) and watched it for date night this week, and I actually loved it. Really what did it for me, although it was funny and a relatable plot, was the end. Without spoiling it, I will just say that the overall message, of humans being flawed and that being ok, is something I loved.

Plus, it's about a pub crawl. I mean, come on.

3. Masamoto. My roommate took me out to this BYOB sushi place for my birthday (which took me into birthday month #2. I don't hate it). We had to cross the border into PA but it was only 15-20 minutes away - one of the perks of living in this small state. The restaurant was super cute too and the sushi was delicious, and we finished it off with a chocolate ice cream/mousse/cake ball. Good company definitely made the night, though. :)


4. Girl time. This week I spent a couple nights with my girls - sushi with Katy, holiday movie night/tea party with Marina and Watson the Scottish terrier, and Friday night in Trolley Square with Annie. It has been so refreshing, a good change of pace, to spend quality one-on-one time with a good friend and just get to talk about whatever is going on. I don't do that very much these days.

5. Taste the Holidays. Annie and I went (late, as usual) to an event at the Delaware Center for Horticulture (DCH) on Friday night. We bought drink tickets and sampled some beer, wine and spirits. The best ones were a blueberry vodka from Maine, and tonic syrup, which neither of us knew was a thing but tastes like Christmas. The guy manning the liquor table was really interesting and knowledgeable, so we spent awhile talking to him and getting samples of the blueberry vodka. We also discovered a local alpaca farm, which had really cute warm hats and gloves and ear warmers, and we spent a few minutes talking to the ladies manning that booth as well. Sometimes the two of us feel like the only hippies in Delaware, but events like this remind us that there is an underground artisan culture in the area. Also, neither of us had been to the DCH before so we took a peek around the facilities while we were there.

6. Hummingbird to Mars. After the event we headed back to the Square, parked, and buzzed in to Delaware's only speakeasy-style bar: Hummingbird to Mars. I've been hearing about this place for months (years?) now but haven't ever gone. Since we were looking for somewhere quiet to sit and talk it was perfect, and the menu (bearing only drinks) was a work of art. I didn't see any cocktails for less than $10, which is more than I normally like to pay, but for a once-in-awhile kind of thing it was a fun experience.

7. Gettysburg Seminary's Social Media Advent Calendar. I haven't seen many churches or religious groups use social media to its full potential, which is sad to me since I know how perfectly suited churches and social media are for each other. Anyway, the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg is taking the classic advent calendar digital this year. It's a 25-day photo challenge, where each day has a theme, and participants post a photo for each day's theme on pretty much any social network, just using the hashtag #watchandwait. It's a really cool way for somebody like me to get involved and do advent stuff.


8. The Neverending Story. I have never seen this movie before, but J, being a child of the 80s, pulled it out today and we watched it... And it is great. When the empire of Fantasia is explained as the hopes and dreams of humans, and being threatened by The Nothing, I got really excited and happy because it actually gives me hope that people were concerned about the demise of human hopes and dreams in 1984... And thirty years later we are still worried about the same thing. We haven't totally lost it yet!

9. Ginger snaps. I think this is the Official Cookie of the 2013 Holiday Season. Our project manager at work brought in a big bag of de-li-cious ginger snaps, and when those were gone we got a bunch of packages of ginger thins, and then today I found a recipe for whole wheat ginger snaps and of course they made the house smell like ginger and cloves and are crunchy and yummy as all get out.

10. Snow day! This morning we were getting all geared up to drive up to Philly and do the Christmas Village... But right at 11a.m. when we were getting dressed, it started snowing, and within 20 minutes we had an inch, and by noon we couldn't finish clearing off our cars because there was a thick layer of snow on it by the time we got all the way around... So one by one, everybody bailed and we ended up just staying at home and making cookies and watching movies. Now, those readers who live in Upstate New York or Minnesota need to understand that in Delaware we don't get snow like that. Some reports said 11.5 inches over the course of the day! It reminded me of home back in New York and the lake effect. Plus, we went out to scrape off our cars before they iced over, and the neighbor came out to shovel her walk at the same time, and we got to talking to her a little. The new neighborhood really is wonderful.

And so is snow!


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Thank you, readers, for being with us tonight, and for giving me reasons to write, and things to write about.

And thanks for joining us every Sunday night! Join the Baby Steps on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TheBabyStepsSaga for good things every day, and updates on new posts. Come back next week for another reminder of 10 more things to be thankful for!

Until then, be kind to each other, and find a reason to smile!

posted from Bloggeroid

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

healthcare and the affordable care act

If you have been following the blog for awhile now, you might have picked up that healthcare is an area of great interest for me. (See the Wisdom Teeth Saga of 2012 for a taste.) I don't think I'm alone in this, either. In many cases, new adults like myself have been used to the college healthcare plan that includes: squeezing all our doctors' appointments into Christmas break; mediocre campus health services; or perpetually self-medicating.

And now things are a little different. We make our own doctors' appointments. I, for one, am eternally grateful that I am now covered by my dad's insurance coverage until I'm 26, and I can say even more confidently that I'm not alone in that! A few of my classmates and friends have been faced unexpectedly with bigger medical issues: traffic accidents, surgeries, food poisoning, and even cancer.

I know that, at least in my circles, a cheer went up when Obama won the presidential election in 2008, and again when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed. Affordable healthcare options are a weight off our shoulders, once we've seen our monthly student loan payments, the discouraging job market, plus the cost of a data plan/rent/gas/car insurance (which we need to be able to drive our cars to work).

But this is all theoretical, right? October 1 is now infamous for the launch of Healthcare.gov, which more or less collapsed under the apparently colossal demand. Perhaps that demand in itself testifies to the importance of accessible healthcare options. And now, the December 15 enrollment deadline is rapidly approaching. I thought it was high time I address this topic.

Now, I have gone out of my way to learn about this Obamacare business. I have been collecting intel on it for months. In the summer and early fall, there was a lot of talk about healthcare and insurance marketing to millennials. (My take? Stop messing around and be real with us. We've got an eye for real value. Just tell me: what am I getting out of this? It'd better be good!) Then, after October 1, and after the government shutdown fiasco blew over, it was all about the broken website. There has been a disturbing undercurrent of what I can only see as propaganda, trying to convince young people in particular to defy Big Brother and forgo coverage. And now everybody's in a panic, because we don't really know what's going on, but we know it's important and it probably impacts us in a big way.

So I tried to talk to a bunch of people to get a feel for the personal experiences of the ACA an the changes to the healthcare system. I didn't get to talk to any newly married couples, but I will say that most of us who are under the age of 26 are just sticking with our parents' plans until we can't anymore. My lucky 30-ish friends who already have jobs with benefits are set, and their spouses are also OK. Some of them are batting around the idea of fast-tracking their upcoming marriages to get uninsured spouses covered before 2014. I also have friends who have switched jobs in the past year, with benefits being a major motivating factor. There are a few who don't have insurance at all, don't have a way to get it, and simply can't afford the monthly premiums. That is a real thing, and a problem.



I work for a small company, which hired an insurance consultant to discuss our needs and options with each of us individually. This guy told me about the bronze, silver, gold, and platinum level plans, how much each of them costs, my deductible for each and what's covered under every level. He said the factors that influence the cost are my zip code, my birthdate, and whether or not I smoke. So, my coworkers who live in a different state will have different options. I will tell you that the plans ranged in price from $190 to $330 a month.

I balked at this. To be honest, I just don't have that kind of money left over in my monthly budget. That would eat up my emergency fund - the dollars that would cover healthcare expenses up to my deductible amount, for example. Even splitting that cost with my employer, I would be hard-pressed to keep those payments coming for a sustained period of time.

Now, don't get me wrong; I completely buy into this system. I count it as a victory that people with pre-existing conditions, poor people, and single-parent families now have a shot at being insured, and I would chip in for that in a heartbeat - if I could. For now I am heaving a sigh of relief that my dad's plan will still cover me at no extra cost to him or to his employers. (For the record, this is something I'm not clear about: the healthcare advisor said that under a family plan, each additional member costs extra; but most of the people I talked to said it makes no difference for their family how many people are on the plan. There's a premium and a deductible for a family, no matter how many members are covered by the plan. For this reason, most of my peers are staying on our parents' plans as long as we can.)

It's not a perfect solution, by any means. I have heard time and time again that the success of this new system depends on the buy-in of 20-somethings, and this could be a problem. Because we feel invincible (not me, definitely, but that's the stereotype). Because we are in many cases unemployed, or in the Peace Corps. Because we just can't afford it. Because we don't understand it and how it works, and we don't understand how to look for the information we need.

(FYI, in Delaware, there is a service called Choose Health Delaware created to help people navigate the system. I have no testimonials on whether or not it works, but they're marketing it pretty hard.)


It's not a perfect solution, but it is an answer to a very real problem. The healthcare and public health situation in this country is horribly broken, and we're paying for it as a nation - financially, culturally, emotionally. It has very serious side effects on our economy, and more importantly, on our national psyche.

I have been encouraging my peers to participate in the exchanges, if they can. I have been encouraging them to seek out information. I have been asking questions and trying to understand the strengths and weaknesses of this new system. I believe we need this, as a nation, whether it works or not. Our public health system is sorely lacking in comparison to that of other developed nations, in most areas except one: spending. That should be enough to grab our attention.

I strongly believe that this is a step in the right direction. Our healthcare system is a mammoth monster and it will take time and probably many stumbles for us to overcome it and find a system that works. I quote a friend of mine who is working on a master degree in social work:

"This very imperfect system (The ACA) is a step toward really really important universal coverage. Because the UN and lots of people view universal healthcare as a human right, I think the ACA is an important step forward. I think the Obama admin. (despite handling things like the website horribly) is really trying to offset costs for young people but the insurance reality remains that healthy people subsidize sick people and young people are overall healthy."

All this being said, readers, if you're still with me - I urge you not to give up. Do not be discouraged. Keep thinking critically, as we were raised and educated to do, about the problem that faces our country and the bodies that constitute it, the bodies both healthy and ill. Let's be constructive and creative, and while we do what we must do for the time being, take note of what works and what doesn't, and what we need to be better and stronger and healthier as a nation. It's not impossible. We just don't know how to do it yet.

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Readers, I'm still curious. I know I still have a lot to learn about our healthcare system and the changes that are taking place. What are your thoughts and experiences with all of this? Share them with me in the comments.

And thanks for reading!

posted from Bloggeroid

Sunday, December 1, 2013

all good things: whelmed.

All Good Things is a weekly feature on the blog. It started as a one-hour Sunday night radio show on KSTO St. Olaf radio, featuring feel-good music and 10 highlights from the past week. The show, and its current written form, is brought to you by Clara, Second Set of Baby Steps creator, and my radio co-host Cassie. Sit back and enjoy!

1. Song of the week: Christmas is All Around by Billy Mack/Bill Nighy. The first scene of one of my all-time favorite movies and hands-down my favorite holiday movie, Love Actually, catchy, terrible/great, now classic. I feel it in my fangers...

2. The Happy Light. J got me a set of full-spectrum mood-boosting lights for my birthday, so I've been trying them out and so far I do think they are making a difference!

3. Days off. I am very grateful that I had a few days off this week after moving to get the house in order. It will cut back on stress when I have to go back to work next week.

4. Holiday movies. 'Tis the season! I have watched Love Actually and Rent so far. Next up: The Holiday. What is your favorite holiday movie? Tell me in the comments and maybe it'll make a future Good Things list!

5. Deep breaths. Lately I have been feeling more anxious than usual and last night I couldn't get to sleep! I remembered how at peace I feel at the end of yoga or BodyFlow when we just lie there on our backs breathing deeply, feeling like I'm melting into the floor. So I tried to call that feeling to my bed by taking some serious inhales and exhales, and I actually smiled because it made such a difference!

6. Decorating! We aren't totally unpacked yet, but I have been switching between putting practical things in their place and putting pretty things in their place, like on the walls or in frames... And of course, Christmas lights! I also spent some time today working on a piece of wall art I started last year, and I really needed that catharsis. This is what really makes it feel like home.

7. Frozen. My family has this tradition of going to see an animated movie matinee for everyone's birthday, and there are almost always good movies out for mine because of Thanksgiving weekend. The first theater we went to was sold out! But I bought tickets from my phone on the way to the second theater, and we actually got six seats together, and the movie was pretty great! The snow and ice animation was excellent, and the twist on "an act of true love" was five-star.

Plus, there was a snowman named Olaf (um ya ya!)

8. My family. Speaking of my family, they really deserve a special shout-out this week.

First, because we have awesome traditions - but we don't get anxious about them.

Second, because I consulted my dad and brother on a box spring/bed frame problem we encountered while moving into the new house (a queen-sized box spring doesn't fit up the stairs), and they went to work building a modular bed frame with built-in storage units, that will be easy to move and will make it through any doorway and staircase.

Third, because my mom got two separate birthday cakes on two different days, and they completely enabled me to finish off my Birthday Month with a bang.

I'll include J's family in this too, if you'll bear with me, for all their help and moral support in our moving process - and a housewarming gift of lasagna from J's future sister-in-law, which has fed us all week, along with other leftovers that grace our fridge and our lunchboxes on a regular basis.

We are very, very lucky.

9. Cars. J went to start his car on Thanksgiving and it wouldn't start. So I drove him to work on Friday, he borrowed my car on Saturday, and then we went out and got a new battery to replace the old one. The car is now running just fine!

So the good things here are: having backup, being handy, and good luck that it wasn't something more complicated or expensive. And it really has made both if us grateful every time our cars start without a problem!

10. Thanksgiving! No, I didn't forget! Thanksgiving is a great and important holiday, because food is great and important, and good food even more so; and because our society desperately needs to focus on spending time with family, and upholding our nuclear traditions, more and more every year; and because we can always use a reminder to give thanks, to say thanks, to be thankful!

Thank you, readers, for being with us tonight, and for giving me reasons to write, and things to write about.

And thanks for joining us every Sunday night! Join the Baby Steps on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TheBabyStepsSaga for good things every day, and updates on new posts. Come back next week for another reminder of 10 more things to be thankful for!

Until then, be kind to each other, and find a reason to smile!

posted from Bloggeroid