I'm Thankful For Lots This Year...Like Table Scraps! How About You?

Ahh!  Thanksgiving is finally here again.  Thanksgiving would probably be my most favorite holiday of all if it weren’t for all the good stuff I get at Christmas.  But Thanksgiving does know how to get to my heart, through my stomach.  Mmmm, table scraps.  I don’t know where giblets come from, but slap some in gravy on some dressing and I’m one happy hound.  Dang I just started drooling on my keyboard. 
Almost as important as appealing to my stomach though is the meaning of Thanksgiving…a time to give thanks.  It is so easy for humans to overlook all the things to be thankful for.  Simple things like the sun rising, the sun painting the sky shades of purple and orange as it sets, the air we breathe, the wonder of the human body, beautiful nature that surrounds us, Roses, family, friends, a roof over our head, food on our table, food spilled on the floor (okay so that’s a dog one), and most importantly – pets - canines, felines, hooved creatures and all.
I’m very thankful for my family that took me in when I was a mere pup, fed and nurtured me, taught me not to pee or poop in the house, spent some serious bucks on surgery when I ate that tennis ball that wouldn’t pass, take me for walks, wipe my slobber off themselves and the furniture, feed me, put up with me always sniffing on them, rub on me, let me sleep on the futon, and love me.  Did I mention feed me?  And all I have to do is be there for them when they come home with my tail wagging.  It’s good work if you can get it. 
So I ask myself as I was laying around the house, what do country music fans have to be thankful for this year?  Here’s what I think:

• Great performers like Martina McBride, George Strait, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Alan Jackson, Trace Adkins, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, Reba McEntire and many many more.
• That Kanye West doesn’t attend the CMA’s.
• That Garth Brooks is performing again.
• For the Grand Ole Opry.
• That The Judds are getting back together.
• That Mindy McCready hasn’t been back to jail.
• That most country music artists are good, wholesome, down to earth people.
• For country radio stations that bring them good music.
• For other sources of new country music like online to find all the good music the radio stations can’t find time to play.
• For the CMA Music Festival each year.
• For steel guitars, guitars, fiddles and other instruments that make country music country.
• For CMT and GACTV that bring country music to our tv’s.
• For web sites like CountryHound to find the latest country music news.
• For Tracy Lawrence’s annual turkey fry that benefits the homeless in Nashville.
• For the big hearts of country music stars that lead them to do so much for charitable causes throughout the year.
• For prison, trains, bars, drinking, divorce, dogs and other topics that make for great country songs.
• And I guess most of all let’s just be thankful for the gift of music in general and how it can soothe us, excite us, please us, and make our lives better. 

So I hope you have a joyful and thankful Thanksgiving.  Enjoy all your food and fixins.  And when you get through with that bird, save a big ole leg of it for Webb so I wouldn’t have written all this for nought. 
Bless you this Thanksgiving!  Woof. 
PS – What do you have to be thankful this year?