I’m thankful.

My three-year-old son, Kiehl, is growing up very quickly. He’s learning and remembering at a pace I can barely match. It’s enjoyable to watch, exciting to experience and yet it gives me a little lump in the throat all at the same time. This Thanksgiving, he had his first lessons in tradition at school, and is learning how he is helping create those traditions in his own life.

Last week, his school, The Orchard School, held their annual fall feast for the preschoolers. This gathering of families and school friends helped connect each of us together with food and our own family traditions. My strongest family food tradition is making southern pecan pie with my mom, usually for Christmas, but since Orchard doesn’t celebrate exact holidays, I thought the pies were the perfect addition to share. While writing about our tradition of making these pies all day in our kitchen, then delivering the pies around to neighbors, family and friends to share in the holiday spirit, it made me thankful I had this tradition. Lots of memories came flooding back. For example, when you’re making these pies, you have to stir the dark karo mix and sugar for so long your arm hurts. I typically got this job (now that I’m an adult, it’s like thanks Mom!) and then you had to take that hot gooey sauce and mix it in with the eggs. This was tricky and took just the right effort to pull this off. Then there is the memory of my brother coming in to ‘help’ but really just being annoying or taking the pecans to eat. Delivering the pies around and getting to share that hard work with our family friends was just as special. As we did this every year, our circle of family friends EXPECTED this pie to arrive and welcomed me in with graciousness. Many closed the door behind me and took to eating the pie right away. I think the pies even made it in to a sermon at chuch one year!

I have a great family, my husband has a wonderful family, and I’m thankful we all have such fond, warm memories of our childhood. It makes me take extra notice of keeping these traditions alive and well with my two sons, and, possibly even creating new ones along the way.

All of this lead to a very long car ride to Washington, DC, where my parents currently live, to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. This long trip gave me time to think about a few more things I’m thankful for:

• My family is obviously first on the list. They are my north, my south, my east, my west (Auden)
• Grandparents!
• Clay and Angela are next up. I spend a lot of time at work/on work. It’s a blessing to do this with such amazing people
• I’m thankful for my friends. I have a lot of friends, but I only have a handful of those really amazing people I could call at 2 am
• I’m thankful for my education and my lifelong desire to keep learning
• Great competitors keep our industry strong and alive; I’m thankful for the sharp marketing professionals out there doing it well
• I’m thankful for social media. That probably sounds silly, but it helps me keep up with news, learnings, people and events. I couldn’t manage it all without the new wonders of technology

I would love to hear your traditions! Share in our comments or drop me a line on Twitter @silversquare or email us. And of course, Happy Thanksgiving!