Getting it all out now so that when we go around the table expressing our thanks tomorrow, I can narrow it down to just one.

I am thankful for many things. Here are some of them, in no particular order.

I am thankful for hoodies. Nothing like being wrapped in a soft cottony fleece. It's comfy, it's warm, it has the option of a hood for those mornings when you left the window open just a crack too far.

I am thankful for food and the farmers who work so hard to supply it. Seeing my cupboards and refrigerator so full of food and goods that there is no room for my Vanilla Coke makes my eyes well up with gratitude and my stomach rumble in anticipation.

I am thankful for my new couches. Well, not so new anymore, but now when people come over I am not embarrassed.

I am thankful for Cameron who, more than any other being on this Earth, makes me want to be a better person.

I am thankful for my good relationship with my mother-in-law. She truly is a wonderful person who loves me more than I deserve. And the time I called her a bitch was to make her laugh, not to actually be cruel. And laugh she did.

I am thankful for my kids' new coats. They'll be nice and warm this winter. Also thankful for hand-me-downs from Mindy and Susie, without which, I would have had to buy new coats for Drew and Trent, too.

I am thankful for my mother, who is not my best friend, because she taught me to choose a spouse who could be my best friend. But she is a close second. Love her to death.

I am thankful for having only one car, and a garage to park it in. I feel so sorry for the people who have no garage, or who have so much junk in their garage that they can't park in it. Because scraping snow in the morning is no fun at all! And I'm thankful for just the one car because it means I get outside more, get more exercise, and don't have to pay for maintenance or registration on a second car. How's that for looking on the bright side?

I am thankful for my husband, who teaches our kids by example. Like, don't throw snowballs at the kitchen window, cause it will break. And don't argue with mom about whether or not the tires on the car need air, because you'll look stupid when you're wrong. Actually, he loves his kids more than anything, and I love that I can see that daily. I am also thankful that the only thing Andrew needs in order to be happy upon arrival home is a hot meal ready to eat. He doesn't care that a HAZ-MAT truck is parked out front and guys in bio-protective space suits are telling me that I have 24 hours to clean up the house before it's evacuated and has to be scrubbed down with bleach and acid as soon as the back-hoe is done removing the mountains of toy and school paper debris.

I am thankful for books. I love to read, and I'm glad there are people out there who are excellent writers and can entertain me in a complex or simple-minded way. Thankful for libraries too.

I am thankful for Drew, who keeps my life exciting.

I am thankful for good teachers who try their hardest to enlighten the minds of my children and are willing to stare down defeat and try again tomorrow.

I am thankful for snow before and during the holidays, and thankful when it disappears afterwards.

I am thankful for my siblings who know me so well and seem to like me anyway.

I am thankful for disposable diapers. Oh, yeah, very thankful.

I am thankful for my cousins who I get to have girl's night with once a month. Fun girls.

I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I'm fairly sure that without it I would be in a dark place and embarrass myself more frequently than I already do.

I am thankful for my brain, which at times is not such a blessing, but at other times keeps me entertained when nothing else can.

I am thankful for Ethan, who is good to the core.

I am thankful for Christmas, which provides me with a month of alternating giddy joy in the season of gifts and chocolate and grateful tears for the life of my Savior.

I am thankful for Andrew's job. I'm almost amazed that he still has one in his industry.

I am thankful that we are mostly poor, because it means that there's rarely any money to fight over.

I am thankful for my hands, without which I could not type, cook, squish my kids' cheeks when I kiss them or turn the pages of a book, because I'm just not that good with my toes.

I am thankful for Trent, who, if I wake him up early enough, will lay his cute little head on my shoulder for about ten seconds before he is off and running. (Or crawling, if you want to be literal.)

I am thankful for my Dad, who is a gift to the whole world, if you'd really like to know how I feel.

I am thankful for grandparents who share their wisdom and goodness with me, and who sometimes surprise me by talking about lesbians and how because most of them look like men anyway, they don't understand the point.

I am thankful for peaches - the most divine fruit in the world.

I am thankful for music and how it can uplift me, energize and motivate me, and make my kids dance like the white boys they are. Biting their lower lip and everything.

I am thankful for cameras because without them, I already would have forgotten a million things -like the shape and size of my thighs at 19, and how my kids looked when they were precious and innocent.

I am thankful for each new day; another opportunity to correct myself and work towards being the person I wish I already was.