Road trips, adventures, and fantastic friends and family are some of the many things for which to give thanks. On the day my husband died, I gave thanks that I was able to be with him. I had sprung him from the hospital and brought him home to our house. That in itself was a huge blessing.

In addition to the remarkable extended families that we gained when we married, we also acquired many new friends. I had lived the bulk of my adult life in the southeastern United States. He had lived the majority of his entire life in the southwestern United States.

The two of us were able to make trips to show each other places that were dear to us and have many adventures that we had never experienced before. Before we moved east, the two of us took a bucket list vacation to experience some Arizona adventures we had never had before. But the adventures didn’t end there.

Last summer, while vacationing in the southeast, we were able to make new memories:

• a picnic with friends on their boat on Lake Murray
• a several-day visit with friends in the mountains of North Carolina
• umpteen visits to meet friends for meals in some of our favorite eateries
• time to kick back loiter with friends, many of which I had known for decades
• worship in a church where an old friend was organist and another old friend was a member
• a drive-by my old house which looked terrific due to the remarkable people who bought it from me
• visits with three dear friends known to us because of our jobs
• the blessing of being houseguests of creative friends we had known for years whose very home was an artistic inspiration

Then, as if that weren’t enough, we did something I had never done before. We made a second major road trip in the same year!

The second road trip we took in November to the southwest. We had fun making new memories:

• we got to be houseguests of my husband’s sister and her husband and enjoy time with them
• we were able to spend time with one of my husband’s daughters and her husband who drove a gazillion miles to visit with us
• we were able to worship again at our former church
• we were able to have a picnic lunch at our favorite picnic table in Saguaro Park East.  Before we left we made a stop in their gift store where my dear husband bought me some wonderful Road Runner earings!  Not every woman is so fortunate!

• we got together with many old friends at some of our favorite eateries all around town to catch up with each other and tell tall tales
•  we spent many happy hours loitering in the homes of friends while enjoying delicious homemade meals and having cookouts
• At the home of one of our friends, we were able to say hello to our former plant, a gorgeous Adenium, which had been a house warming gift when we had moved to the southwest. By the time we moved to Ohio, it had grown so big that we couldn’t take it with us. Thankfully our friends adopted it. Bless them!

Neither of us had any idea what 2020 would bring our way. Thankfully, the blessings of 2019 were many — and those blessings continue to shower down on me.