Today I am grateful for the amazing life I have. My family, my church, my friends, my clients, and my work – all blend perfectly for me. This month of blessings has been fun to share with everyone. I hope you all have learned something worthwhile about me, and that it has been enjoyable to read. I’m thankful to have been able to post to my blog almost every single day. (My recently dreadful internet connection made it impossible once or twice!) Wishing each of you a grateful December and 2010!

I’m so grateful for all the abundance that my family has received this year. And I’m happy to know that God will always provide everything we need, exactly when we need it. Abundance doesn’t mean excess to me – it means just the right amount. This thought is so freeing and hopeful. I’m certain that the right direction will always unfold to me and to each one of us.

It’s Thanksgiving Day, and as I write, the turkey has been in the oven for a couple of hours already. Hubby got up pre-dawn to put it in the oven. I’ve given him instructions on making gravy, so we will see how that turns out! I’ll be heading for church in a bit. I’ll probably get choked up during the testimonies of gratitude from everyone there. I don’t know if anyone else from the family is joining me at the service, so they will pick me up on the way to Grandma Sue Sue’s house – turkey in tow. This year I am grateful for the abundance of good that my family has received. “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.” ~ Psalms 69:30

I love family traditions. We only have a couple. The one I look forward to is Movie Day (or Night.) I think it started on vacation 20 years ago. It rained one day while we were at the beach, so we took our little ones to a movie. That started something, so that during every vacation, we always save one afternoon to see a movie. The kids have always humored me; sometimes it was difficult during the teen years, but we did it despite the protests. Most often we have seen the family blockbusters that were playing during the summer. It could have been Star Wars, Harry Potter, or Pirates of the Caribbean. We next added a movie over the Thanksgiving holidays and right around Christmas – often Christmas Eve afternoon before church. After my daughter started college we added movie days whenever she came back home.

So this holiday weekend we are going to see “The Blindside.” I always give my son fair warning so he doesn’t go off with his friends to see it first. He understands that he might end up seeing something twice otherwise.

Hope you have some neat holiday traditions, too.

I’m grateful that each year the President of the United States issues a Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. It’s always interesting to see what it contains. This year is very plain and simple, but it still is the “official” word to me. My church has a Thanksgiving Day service, and this is read aloud at the beginning of the service. It’s been a tradition every year of my life to go to church on Thanksgiving morning, hear the proclamation and to stand up and express my gratitude.  It’s a highlight of my year. Seriously. I love it that much.  I hope you will click over and read the proclamation this year, and every year.

On this Monday morning I am thankful to live in a climate that doesn’t get too cold for too long. Don’t get me wrong – snow is pretty. But for a day or two tops. And maybe just every few years. Our winters are a sprinkling of days when I break out the wool sweaters and hand knit wool socks. Or the occasional night when my wool coat is required. Boots? Not found in my closet. Unless you count the cowboy boots I’ve had for 30 years. The few really cold days are interspersed with many requiring only long sleeves and a fleece jacket. Often, I can still throw on a pair of shorts with a sweatshirt and be comfortable. Winter is maybe the month of January and February. Thanksgiving and Christmas are often “outside” days. It works for our lifestyle – more golf for hubby, more outside time for me.

I hope you live in a climate you enjoy, too!

Today I am thankful for so many people who have been my mentors this year. It’s been an amazing year of learning and I am thrilled that so many have shared their amazing knowledge and skills with me. A lot of what I learned I paid for. (good to invest in yourself) But a lot has come from the talented people I have met along my journey in 2009 who have given freely of their passion and information. Some of the people were and are my coaches, and to you I send a special thanks. You have enriched my life and business in ways that I can not adequately express. To the rest of you, I hope to individually let you know how much you mean to me.

In 2010, I hope to freely share my talents with many others. It’s time to give back!

Today I am thankful for clarity. As in, having enough clarity to know what the right decision is. Knowing what projects are right for me and which ones are not. Knowing what clients to work with, knowing what to spend my time on, knowing in what direction I want my business to go. As a business owner I can do whatever I want, but having the vision, the clear sense of direction, is a blessing.

Wishing you clarity, too!

I have the best clients! Today I am very thankful for the great relationships I have with these folks. It makes getting to my desk each day totally fun knowing that I will be talking to one or more of them. They are witty, warm, and easy going. In spite of being in different parts of the country and in different kinds of businesses, they all have something in common – they are ideal! I hope you are working with your ideal clients, too.

This morning I taught a group of two dozen local contractors about social media. The class met their CEU requirements for the year, so it was a mixed bag of interest levels. Many did not even have websites, and some didn’t have an email address. Since I knew that going in, I was happy to entertain them with lots of examples of why and how they should consider social media as a marketing component. While preparing for the half-day class I found lots of good examples of how contractors around the country are using videos, blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. I am so thankful for how social media has changed the face of my own business, how I market, how I learn, and how I can help my clients. My Twitter and Facebook connections have proved to be the major source of information for me and I am grateful for how willing people are to share what they know. Social media also provides the socialization I crave while working from home. It’s the tool I didn’t know I needed until I found it!