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Gratitude #22: Holidays.

We woke up slow, ate breakfast in our pajamas, and lazily got ready for the day--taking dozens of minutes in between to wrestle with our little one, snack on chocolate, gaze out the window.

Late morning, we wandered over with a sack full of bread to feed the ducks, who--without the regular college crowd milling about to share crumbs with them--were without a feast. We fed them, and fed them, and fed them, while our young son giggled and snatched a piece of bread to nibble on himself.

The sky turned from hazy gray to rainstorm clouds, we made it home from our walk just in time and ate a small lunch while the munchkin napped and buckets of raindrops pelted the pavement outside our kitchen view.

In a few minutes we'll take a drive to be with family, where we'll give thanks, and eat turkey, pies, rolls, salad greens, and cranberry sauce. We'll share talents, play games, and return to the table to eat more food till our bellies fill to bursting.

And then we'll take a leisurely pace home again, to nestle in our warm beds, content from the conversation, company, and calories.

Today I'm grateful for holidays, and the gentle, undistracted pace they afford my family. I'm grateful that holidays provide togetherness. I'm grateful holidays provide a lull in traffic, a lull in business, a time of play and reverie and memories and food and family.

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