here's looking at you, kid

1. I am grateful for genetics. I love being able to see pieces of the parents when I look at the children. Right now I'm watching my sister help her oldest daughter with her homework, and, wow, that cute little girl is just the spitting image of her mother. And besides the physical resemblance, I enjoy seeing the personality traits that the children have picked up from their parents. It makes me excited to see what parts of me Gulliver will exhibit (since we already know he didn't get my fingernails. Poor kid).

2. I am grateful that my dad is always willing to take all the children outside to play so that the other adults can work on dinner. Gulliver just loves being outside with his grandpa.

3. I am grateful for warm, fresh-from-the-oven rolls.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

--Melody Beattie