Being Thankful

My thoughts this week were centered around how thankful I (we) am for so many things in our lives.  It is natural this week, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, all bring these thoughts of thankfulness and reflection. We have so much to be thankful for in our lives, but recently I have been reflecting on 2024 and the things we sometimes take for granted and need to remind ourselves that these are blessings. 

First and foremost, I am thankful for Barb. She is my world, my everything, I could not function without her.  Her strength, her drive and her overall positive attitude carries us through the day, weeks, months and the entire year. I know no other woman who works as hard and has such a positive outlook on life day to day. 

This past year has been quite the adventure, our Alaska trip, hunting with Forrest at the farm, Jessica and her family visiting.....All things we are thankful for this year. 

We have been relatively healthy throughout the year, something we often take for granted. As many of you know, that is something that can change in an instant, totally rocking your world. We had a couple of bumps/scares in the past year, but overall, our health is good allowing us to get out and do the things we love. 

Closely related is our happiness. Health certainly affects one's happiness, but there are many totally healthy people who just cannot find happiness, going through life focusing on the negative and letting it affect their overall attitude in life. There are so many good things that happen during a day, but it is human nature to take these for granted and let the one or two little negative things/annoyances affect the entire day. We are constantly reminding ourselves to let the little things go. In the overall scheme of life these things do not matter, need to be overlooked and not affect your overall attitude.

On the heels of Jessica's visited I am reminded at how thankful we should be that we have good kids and get along with them so well. Not only them, but their spouses and children. Sure, there are minor annoyances, as I am sure they are with us, but that is just what they are minor and should be overlooked and not let them affect our lives. 

I am thankful for our friends. Kevin, Cheryl, Dan, Bonnie, The Finken's, Sobieck's, and the Ross's up in Alaska. All were big parts of our lives this past year. Our friends in Minnesota (yes, you too Dino), Wisconsin, Florida and Canada, people we may not have even seen this year, but we are thankful to call our friends. 

We are thankful to have great neighbors on all sides of us. Something one has no control over. We have become good friends with some of our neighbors, others are silent, respectful and courteous, again, something we take for granted. In fact, we got out to supper with Jim and Carmen this week!

So those are the things we are grateful for as I type this on a whim at 5:45 in the morning before going out hunting. I am sure I forgot a few things/people, but I have not had my morning Moutain Dew yet today. 

For those of you fearing for my wellbeing, fear not I have survived another week and no, Barb did not really give me black eyes. Ironically, she DID end up with two black eyes this week when she walked into the edge of the door in the middle of the night. Not seriously black, but some definite bruising. 

Out in the hunting blind, the quest continues. The bucks are chasing does like crazy, none stop action every morning and night. I would say 1/3 of the bucks are coming in like this....

Busted racks. They are fighting more this year than I have seen in the past. I had an encounter with on really nice buck that I probably would have taken but half of his rack was gone! You don't suppose he did that himself to make him less attractive?

As you can see, we got more snow, about 3". Barb will sometimes pick me up or drop me off at my blind. Here is my view as she pulled up to pick me up the other day. 

Out in Pennsylvania, daughter Jessica and Baby K are on their own quest for a big buck. No luck yet, but they it looks like they are having fun!

Forrest and I took advantage of the snow and went exploring for elk. Barb's Elk season opens on Sunday. Although we did not see any elk, we did see some tracks, giving us a clue to where they are hanging out.

Our biggest clue as to where the elk are hanging out came on Wednesday night when we pulled in the driveway at 9pm after attending our weekly bingo event. There, in front of us, on our property were about 100 elk! Hopefully they hang around another few days!

Speaking of bingo and Wednesday, it was a big day, as it was Somer's birthday! Although no one at our table won big, we had a good time, and Somer had a great day.

I purposely did not mention our niece Alana and nephew-in-law Ryan above who brought us many laughs this year. That is because they were a big part of this week! The day, of course was Thanksgiving. What a day we had planned! The theme of the day was dogs. Of course, we had Dakota and Zoey, then Jack and Chloe. Alana and Ryan came down from Spearfish with their two dogs, Loki and Sophie making the total count 6 dogs and 7 humans. But wait, there's more! Alana's sister and our other niece, Tess, drove up from Denver to join us with not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 dogs! Making the final count 8 humans, 10 dogs. We were definitely outnumbered!

To say, I was hesitant/skeptical would be an understatement, but it went really, really well. A couple minor squabbles and one Christmas Story moment when Loki jumped up and grabbed a chunk of turkey off the counter.

After eating we watched some more football and played a few dice games.

Just two trail camera photos this week. This first one is a cool picture of a magpie staring into the camera.

The next was an unplanned picture but it shows how I am now filling my water tank. So much easier than putting it in the back of the side by side and tipping it over. I should say was filling my water tank as everything is now frozen. 

Our last event of the week was one that Barb looks forward to every year. Our Christmas tree hunt! When the kids were young, Barb made it quite the event; going to a local Christmas tree farm looking for the perfect tree. She would walk up and down even row of trees comparing each and every one. I T  W O U L D  T A K E  H O UR S!!!!! It has become a running joke in the family. The last couple of years we have been getting our trees from Bomgaars. Even there, she has to inspect each and every tree. 

This year we went to The National Forest to select our tree. For $10, you can buy a Christmas tree permit allowing you to go out to the forest and cut a tree. How in the world would she ever select a tree from the millions scattered across the Black Hills? Luckily, it was narrowed down to only a couple hundred thousand as she wanted a spruce and not a ponderosa pine. 

Forrest, Somer, Lily, Chloe and I tagged along as Barb went from tree to tree say "No". Two hours later, our group had dwindled to 3 as Somer, Lily and Chloe tapped out and returned to the truck to warm up. Finally, she narrowed it down to two tree and went back and forth between the two trying to decide on her final selection. Finally, it was done! She had selected a tree! 

The problem was, we were now 1/2 mile from the truck, and I had to go back and get the chainsaw. 20 minutes later I return to "The Tree" to find Forrest and Barb nowhere in sight. "Barb!" I yelled....nothing, three more times, no answer. I finally call Forrest on the phone; he answers and says we are over the next ridge looking at more trees, but we are coming back. 

Tree cut, Forrest and I drag it back to the truck. Finally, we have our tree! A 14' beauty that we cut down to 11' that stands proudly in our living room. Barb spent the next morning decorating it. It's a little thin, but it will do for this year!

When Somer came in, Barb had Christmas music playing, Somer made the comment that in their family, they only played Christmas music on Christmas day. In our family, we play it Thanksgiving through Christmas. 

What is your tradition? Only Christmas day? A week before Christmas? The entire holiday season? What other traditions do you have?