This year, as Thanksgiving approaches, I started thinking about all the things for which I’m thankful, and my mind literally started to race.  My list goes well beyond the three things kids get asked to list on their paper turkeys in school, and it starts with one very important item:  my son.  Seven years ago, on December 2, 2004, Ethan was born. He came into the world with the roundest, most perfect little head and cutest, tiniest little body. He seemed to know right away that I was his mom. He grabbed hold of one of my fingers and held it tight. He looked up at me as if to say, “Hello, Mommy.”  He had me at “hello.”  Truth be told, he had me at his first sonogram. The one where he was sucking his thumb.     

While I am thankful for my family and friends, my health, their health, the roof over my head, the fact that in this economy we still have jobs (knock wood), and much more, I am most thankful for my son and for the chance to be a mom–his mom.  To say he has changed my life for the better would be an understatement. He has given me the opportunity to do something really meaningful.  Yes, I do believe that I have contributed to society in other important ways, but I know in my heart that being his mom is the piece de resistance–for me.

I am thankful for my motherhood job that gives me the chance to utilize my organizational skills, my creativity, my negotiation skills, my socials skills, and all the other skills I have honed in my professional life. I am thankful that as a mother, I get to teach my son all the wonderful things that my parents taught me. And I am thankful that I get the chance to help shape a beautiful little mind and watch it grow. And feel good that, one day, when he grows up and is independent, that I was partly responsible for the wonderful man I know he will become. I see my role of mom as the one and only job that is really important, and I want to be the best CEO Mom for my son. I am thankful that I have been given the chance to try. 

So this week when I am eating my turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy (which are not on my 1,000 calorie a day diet), and trying to get my son to eat his, I will be thinking about how thankful I am to have food on the table and the chance to nag my son about eating his vegetables.  Afterward, when the Triptan has kicked in and we’re all taking a nap, I will be thankful that my son turns down the volume on his 3DS so I can get some much needed rest. 

But seriously, this Thanksgiving, I am thinking about how thankful I am for the opportunity to have the job of a lifetime.  My paycheck comes in many forms:  a running, leaping hug that nearly knocks me over, a lick-kiss because he thinks it’s funny, a sweet drawing of a heart that says “I love you Mom,” a cookie saved for me from his lunch, a flower he picks for me from our garden in the summertime, and the wide smiles he beams when I say something funny.  

This Thanksgiving, I am more thankful than ever that I am the mom of a very excited almost seven-year-old for whom I am baking and decorating 24 custom angry birds cupcakes! By the way, does anyone know where I can find black shoelace licorice for the eyebrows?!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!