For starters, I’m grateful that my wonderful children love me – and love their Dad. I’m also grateful that I don’t take that for granted – I realize how fortunate we are.
I look around and see so many fractured families – children who want nothing to do with their parents, and parents who have disowned their children.
I once had listing clients who, between them, had twelve children. They said they didn’t know where any of them lived.
One of our neighbors announced to my husband one day that “My kids get nothing from me. They can make it or break it on their own.” I won’t repeat what my husband called him.
And then I look at my two boys. My first-born lives over in the Seattle area, so we don’t 
get to see him much, but we talk on the phone often. He’s my go-to guy when the computer has me baffled or when I need a sounding board about marketing, etc.
He’s also someone with whom I can get into long conversations about human nature, psychology, the paranormal, and other subjects that hold no interest for my husband and younger son.
And, when my Uncle’s wife gave me one-day access to get belongings I had inherited from my Mom, he got in his car and drove 7 hours to help.
My younger son technically lives near here, but as a foreman for a power line building company, he’s on the road most of the time. Sometimes he’s near enough to make it home on weekends, so we get to see him more often. Meanwhile, we talk on the phone almost every evening, if only just to check in.
When he’s home, he and his Dad go fishing, and the two of them take a week every June to fish at a favorite lake in Montana. When possible, all 3 of “my boys” go.
Like his brother, he’s willing to pitch in any time we need him. We do try to return the favor – I do his bookkeeping, and his dog, Puppy, lives with us whenever it’s not possible to take him along on the job. This year my husband repainted one of his boats and did other repairs that he couldn’t tend to while working out of state.
I’m also grateful that our two boys love each other. They have very different personalities, but it doesn’t matter.
In short, we’re all close and all ready to help each other, and for that I’m very grateful.
Oh - and one more thing. I get to have both boys here for Christmas this year! I'm pretty grateful for that as well.
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