I am forever grateful for the kind, inspiring mentors I had while a graduate student at Fairfield University. I’m specifically thankful for my semester mentors:

• Lary Bloom
• Joan Connor
• Porochista Khakpour
• Kim Dana Kupperman (Also, you can read an interview I did with Kim on Mason’s Road if you’re interested)

And to Baron Wormser who was my second reader of my thesis.

But not just those five… I’m also grateful for the mentors who taught my workshops: Marita Golden, Leila Philip, and Da Chen.

I learned so much under the auspices of these incredibly talented individuals, and for that I am eternally grateful.

Today my friends threw a post-Thanksgiving dinner for friends. It was a really nice way to end the weekend.

The best thing in the world happened yesterday. Logan, our Elf on the Shelf came back to us for the holiday season. I can’t even begin to describe how much I love this little guy and all the trouble he gets into. Last year he was all sorts of trouble and at the same time, all sorts of help. He ironed our clothing. He found his way into the car and buckled himself into Wolverine’s car seat. He also poured flour all over the kitchen floor and made a snow angel, and we woke up one morning to him playing poker with some stuffed animals.

I’ve missed this little guy so much since last year, but he did make one surprise appearance in the middle of the year. Wolverine’s birthday is in July, and after we came home from celebrating his birthday, we found a present on his pillow. Logan must have stopped by while we were gone, taken a photo next to our birthday countdown and left a video game for Wolverine!

Who knows what kind of trouble this little guy will get into this year. I promise to share some pictures throughout the holiday season. I’m just glad he’s back around.

Today I will be brief. I am so grateful to spend the holidays with my family. I remember missing my family party when I lived in Virginia and how much I missed being around my siblings, parents and grandparents. That was a fantastic holiday with my friends though. This year, like last, I’m thankful to eat lunch at my grandparents’ house and dinner at Mr.O’s parents house.

And on top of all of that greatness… Logan, the elf is going to find his way back to us tonight!

Today I am grateful…

• for a day off tomorrow (yes, I am working on Friday!)
• that I’m healthy.
• for the chance to see old friends tonight
• to make appetizers and desserts for my Thanksgiving meals.
• for scarves in cold weather.
• for my Keurig.
• for my friends
• that I finished a big project at work today!
• for having ideas of what I can get Mr. O for Christmas
• for completing a lot of our holiday shopping already.

I’m so glad to have such creative, helpful, insightful people in my life. I know I’ve been talking about Spry a lot, but I’ll probably do quite a bit of that until it launches on December 15th. Last week I wrote about my co-founder/editor Linsey Jayne. Today I am thankful for our friend Cisco Covino who has been helping us with most of our designs for issue #1. This is his most recent design, and we absolutely love it. How cool is this?