#ThankfulThursday | Santa make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down

My favorite line from The Office, in the entire history of the show, is in the second season, at the Dundies, when a drunk Pam mutters, "I feel God in this Chile's tonight." It's not just the funniness of that line, or the funniness of its delivery, it's that I've felt that way before, for real. GPOY. Friday night, pizza night, due to a miscommunication at the grocery store, Wolfman and I failed to pick up any pizza sauce (it happens). So, I took a quick, solo trip three minutes up the road to our little neighborhood shop. I felt God in that Food Lion that night. What God is, I'm not sure, but I felt It--in the glorious sunset sky framing the strip mall, in the unsolicited smile of a young woman walking out the automatic doors as I walked in (I'm so used to being the first to offer a smile), in the little paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling. I have a rich history with Food Lions, specifically. I worked at one, crushed on a boy there as I worked, dated that crush some years later. One of my earliest memories is of riding in the front seat of the car as my grandpa drove me up winding Harrison Avenue to the grocery store, a Food Lion. Each place I've lived as an adult, Food Lion has been the nearest, easiest grocery chain to access, and I always recognize the employees there, and they are always friendly. I'm thankful for that. And I'm thankful that the specific Christmas song I'd been humming as I picked up our pizza sauce is the one that played as soon as I returned to the car and turned on the radio.

I Am Grateful:

• for white chocolate.
• for the woman who cleans the Bojangles dining room.
• for the smell of elk cooking on the griddle.
• for the customer at the shop who gushed over me and my ensemble, "You are so adorable!"
• for the old gentleman who stopped in the shop to tell me and Serena he always enjoys our window displays. He asked me, "Are you from New York? Are you trained?" I am grateful for his compliments, grateful for the warmth in his smile, and grateful that some people go out of their way to make others feel good. And, I'm grateful to Serena for trying to give me all the credit for our displays.
• for lemon ginger tea.
• for my husband, who is always willing to listen to me rant, and I am grateful even moreso when he snuggles close to me in bed as we're falling asleep, after I've had a terrible day, and tells me sympathetically, "Everybody's crazy except you."
• for the customer at work who tells me matter-of-factly, "You're so pretty," as she leans over the counter filling out a drop-off form.
• to my co-worker, Marilyn, who bought me a salted pretzel even though I'd been kind of a jerk to her early in the morning.
• for Urban Turban baba ganoush.

"Run, Rudolph, Run," Chuck Berry