Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. I reflect on gratitude a lot in general, and I’m also obsessed with yummy food and have a strong distaste for the insane materialism that can ensue in December.

Yesterday subsequently was a big deal. First, Jon and I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time ever. For the last decade we’ve either been relocating or far away or in a tiny apartment or whatever. This year we were in town and now - gratefully - live in a space that can accommodate 14 adults and 2 children. Not with formal sit down and fine china but we weren’t much concerned about those factors (and it’s a stretch to refer to our chipped up, inexpensive wedding dishes anywhere in the realm of fine china…). Mostly it was pretty amazing to have almost my entire immediate family present + Jon’s parents and very cool aunt and uncle. All of these people have not been in the same space since Jon and I got married almost 10 years ago.

And with the way my family rolls, the food spread was ridiculous and diverse (rice! dumplings!) and spectacular. I made the turkey (smothered with roasted garlic, butter, and herbs), cranberry sauce with figs, apple and chestnut stuffing, and mushroom gravy and assigned the rest for potluck. It looked something like this:

And this:

…with the exception that I couldn’t get all of the dishes in one frame and I regretfully forgot to take pictures of the four spectacular pies Jon’s aunt and uncle brought, and the tres leches cake I made to celebrate my in-laws’ 40th wedding anniversary.

There also was plenty of general silliness and celebration, with the fleet of turkey paper bag puppets that Laurel made for everyone playing a role. Apologies for the blurry photos; those turkeys move fast…and again, like the food, I couldn’t fit everyone and their puppets in the frame:

The other notable thing about Thanksgiving 2009 was that I ran my first race ever — the Gobble Gobble Gobble run in Davis Square. As some of you may know, a few months ago I started to experiment with running after a lifetime of saying that I couldn’t run; that I wasn’t built for it. And despite having some wonky hip issues, I ran the 4-miler without stopping and finished it, feeling totally elated and energized by the end. I forgot to bring my stopwatch and my listed finish time was 44:17. I was totally happy with that time, then thanks to my friend Sheri, who was running her stopwatch, I learned that the sensor chip only recorded the finish time (i.e., not when we crossed the start line) and we crossed the start line 2 minutes after the official start. So, my time was about 42 minutes. So, so cool!

Beyond hitting this personal and physical milestone, however, I must admit that I was a tad overwhelmed with emotion at the race. I’ve always been a people person; someone who loves being amidst family and friends, and yesterday’s turkey trot was particularly symbolic of that. Not only did I have the virtual love and support of the Shredheads and my friends commenting in via Facebook, but I started the race with my sisters Sharon and Jenn, middle/high school classmates Paige and Mark (plus Mark’s lovely wife Lisa and their adorable son Hunter, who rode in the jogger), and friends from my blogging/social media life, Sheri & Eli. It was so utterly cool to experience this milestone with people from different factions of my life.

Here at the start line, with Sharon, Paige, Eli, and Sheri:

And we found my sister Steph (far right) and her husband Bill (snapping the photo) at the finish line (those go getters started the race right at the beginning of the pack):

I ran about 2 miles with Sharon (which was so, so awesome, even though we didn’t really chat…I’m incapable of chatting and running at this point) and then we separated. I approached the finish line alone but then it was so amazing to see and hear Eli calling my name and waving as I crossed the finish. (Thank you Eli! Sniff!) It then was similarly awesome to wait at the finish and scream my brains out to welcome Sharon, Steph, Bill, Paige, and Jenn across the finish line. About 10 minutes later, we found Jon and Laurel in Davis Square, bearing trail mix and water and clementines. I felt incredibly grateful for that experience.

In short, I couldn’t help but be faklempt yesterday. So many in this world have so little, and yesterday I was fully aware of how abundant my life is with amazing friends, family, food, and good health.

I spend a lot of time explaining to friends, family, and businesses what the point of Twitter is. It’s not uncommon to hear the, “Why the hell do I want to know what people are having for lunch?” question in regards to the micro blogging platform.

And while Twitter sometimes gets abused as a lightning fast way to spread negativity, there are other times when it serves as a means to disseminate information, issue a rally call, and evidence love and solidarity in a way that no phone tree could ever achieve.

Just a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting Anissa Mayhew for the first time at the Aiming Low party in Boston. We had connected over Twitter a couple of weeks prior to the event and have since exchanged all sorts of humorous, snarky tweets. Simply put, she’s a hilarious person. And of course we share that Korean bond.

Yesterday Anissa suffered a stroke and she is in the ICU. The Twitter community exploded with love and support for Anissa (you can follow the hashtag #prayersforanissa). I know I wasn’t the only one hitting the refresh button last night, hoping and praying for good news. At one point there was word that Anissa squeezed her husband’s hand and I could feel exhales and hope out there. I truly could.

It’s so hard to feel helpless in situations such as this. My first reaction was to gear myself up to interface with my former postdoc supervisor (who I haven’t spoken to since leaving academia); to implore for help via my old connections in neurology and at the stroke unit. But medical connections in Boston likely will do Anissa little help, and where I feel I can be more helpful is sending Anissa all of the positive and healing energy that my cells can muster. I truly believe in the power of universe energy; she’s gotta be feeling the waves from around the world.

And meanwhile, IzzyMom has posted about ways to help, which I’ll be tapping as soon as the PO box is set up.

Anissa, get well. So many are sending so much love your way. I know you can feel it. We are eagerly anticipating your snark and humor and light when you get out of the ICU.

UPDATE (11/18/09): Unfortunately the Aiming Low site has crashed; keep checking back, but otherwise, you can find updates about Anissa’s condition via Heather at The Spohrs Are Multiplying.

I may risk sounding like a bad after school special, but I’m putting it in writing here: I will never say never again.

After four months of kicking ass as part of the Shredheads, back in July, I started mulling the notion of running, a physical activity I had always deemed myself unfit for. Thanks to recommendations from fellow Shredheads I started chipping away at the Couch to 5K program, stretching it out (doing run/walk segments 1-2 times per week) and mixing it up with shredding and yoga. I (incredulously) hit the 20 minute mark in September and signed up for my first race last month (what I thought was a Thanksgiving 5K but will actually be a 4-miler).

With the turkey trot on the horizon, I’ve since stepped up the running a bit, removing shredding from my routine (I figure I can get back to it when we’re buried in snow) and running every other day or every third day. And I always do yoga in between run days. (I highly recommend Angie Stewart’s Yoga Fitness Fusion On Demand with Exercise TV; she stretches everything out beautifully and she’s got a very chill personality. Comparison being Elise Gulan, who gives an ass kicking workout in Yoga Fitness Plus but her chipperness utterly unnerves me.) I can’t recommend enough alternating running and yoga; the running is doing wonders trimming me down (I’m actually thinking I may be able to pull off minis or skinny jeans…) and the yoga helps work out all the kinks, stretch me out, and even make me feel a teeny bit taller.

Anyway, today’s a pretty big day for me. The girl who always said never to running hit the 4 mile mark. In 42 minutes. Actually it was 41 minutes and 53 seconds, but who’s counting?

I am so, so grateful to Kristen and Bill and all the Shredheads (and all of my non-Shredhead friends who’ve been cheering me on via Facebook) for their support. I still can’t believe that I’m a runner now!