Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday when we lived in the US; with friends, family, and lots of food, what's not to love? I would spend a week prepping all I could ahead of time, then cooking for two full days before T Day, and then Wednesday evening the boys and families would all arrive, each with their dish assignment, and we would order pizza and they would make their dish and get it ready for the next day. Because we lived at 7200 feet, I could count on the cold most years, and we'd have ice chests on the front porch full of all that wouldn't fit in the refrigerator. Pies would be wrapped and put in the pie safe, on the front porch, and I would go over my checklist one last time before sleep. Then T-day arrived, friends came for the feast, and in a moment, we'd laughed, drank, eaten, and gone for a walk before dessert, and the day ended. A moment. Such a brief moment.
I'm grateful for those moments I had, for all those who sat around my table, for my sons and their families, and for having the means to afford to feed those I love. I am grateful for the years of snow and the year we had seventy-degree weather and feasted outside. New Mexico could be that way. I'm thankful for all that was in the years of Thanksgiving past.
Thanksgiving is a November holiday in the USA, not in Belize. Here, life goes on as it does on any given day. The windows we ordered a month ago to replace our leaking ones will be installed today. There will be no feast prepared in my kitchen, no mimosa poured with my coffee, but there will be thankfulness for the Caribbean breeze on my rooftop as I sip my coffee and look out at the Cockscomb mountains. Also for the Thanksgiving meal, I'll be eating at the Placencia Beach Club this evening, a beautiful place by the sea, that each year serves expats, from up and down the peninsula, their traditional Thanksgiving meal, even providing us vegetarians with a choice.
I say out loud, almost every morning as I drink my coffee, how grateful I am for our life here in Belize. This has been a wonderful place to land for the last third of our lives. I'm thankful for so many things. For the kisskadee birds that greet me each morning, for the breeze in the palm trees that can soothe even the most stressed-out soul. I am grateful for the pace of life here, even when it takes twice as long for something to happen because Belize time is different than US time. I am grateful for the chirp of the geckos in the palapa, even if they do leave their little poops lying around.
As I look back at this year, there is so much to be thankful for I could go on and on, but I am most grateful for our pontoon boat, built by a local man on Belizean time, who sadly passed away just a few weeks after he finished. He was greatly loved here in Placencia and I think of him each time we putt around the lagoon and out into the sea. Life is fleeting. I am thankful for each moment of life I get here on this beautiful earth. I'm thankful for you, readers, who indulge my sporadic posts. My love to you and yours.
Peace and Joy
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