• Elisa Järnefelt

One of my favorite things about being the parent of a 2-year-old is being able to witness my daughter paying attention to the smallest details and expressing joy about them. It's contagious. If you had asked me a few years ago what I was thankful for, my list would have probably taken a long time to compile, and it would have been short. Not because I only had few things to be grateful for, but because I had started to think that the answer to this question had to be, somehow, grand. I had forgotten that the seemingly small things can be magnificent, too. This season, looking through my daughter's eyes, I've relearned what to be thankful for:

• waffles for breakfast
• that one avocado seed that sprouted
• the sight and sound of every fire truck
• garbage truck days
• figuring out a good hiding place in hide-and-seek
• having a favorite book
• walking on crunching leaves
• drawing monsters
• petting sheep
• setting up the bird feeder
• memorizing the words of songs
• learning to pedal a bicycle
• learning when to say sorry
• finding the moon in the sky.