What Matthew Taught Me About: Being Thankful

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I am sitting here thinking about my little boy and missing him terribly. I am thinking about the energy that usually filled our house around the holidays. It is about this time that we would start to tell Matthew that Santa was watching and that he needed to make good choices in order to stay on the nice list. After school he would run at me at 100 miles an hour to give me a hug and to tell me he had a good day (then he would turn to Miss Sara and say “did I?”) and show me the holiday themed schoolwork that he did (always masterpieces). With the cold weather, we would snuggle on the couch and watch movies with the fire on and play iPad games together.

This year, it is harder to think about the things that make me thankful. It seems like my list is back to basics, just like Matthew was so thankful for all of the little things that most of us so often take for granted. If he fell over and you caught him (which happened far more often than you would think), he would say “Thank you for saving my life!”. If you helped him or let him play with something he would say “thank you” with such genuine gratitude. He appreciated and was grateful for the small, everyday things, even on days that he wasn’t feeling his best.

I am going to try to follow his example this year.

I am thankful for my husband and my beautiful daughter. I am thankful for my parents and my family. I am thankful for my friends and the amazing amount of support that everyone has shown. I am thankful for 10 incredible years with the most amazing little boy who taught me so much.