Thanksgiving is so last week.

If there is such a thing as “rural suburbia”, then the small town that I grew up would be the poster child. Not quite small enough that everyone knows each other, and not quite close enough to be the suburbs of a big city.

I went “home” to said hometown for Thanksgiving to spend it with family and friends.

I went for a jog on Thanksgiving morning. Mostly because I believed some sort of delusion that jogging would cancel out my impending Thanksgiving dinner gorge, but mostly because I hadn’t gone for a jog in a really long time.

I’ll save the excuses about daylight savings times affecting the light outside preventing me from jogging in friendly sunlight.

Anyways, my first thought on my Thanksgiving jog was, “Dear God, please don’t let anyone I know see me.”

My next thought was realizing that after only a minute I was like, “I haaaaaaaaaaate this so much! WHYYYYYY?!”

So, there I was jogging and disliking every minute of it and I decided right there and then to talk to the Creator of the Universe.

My prayers were not exempt from the clichés that normally abound on this fine holiday,

I thanked Him for my body.

I thanked Him for a body with two strong legs to get me where I go.

I thanked Him for strong arms.

I thanked Him for a body that could potentially support a child (in like 10 years.)

I thanked Him for great health in a time of no medical insurance.

It was a freeing prayer—an attempt to put a positive spin on the things that I dislike most about my body.

I’ll get there, though.

I like myself the more now than I ever have in my entire life.

It also didn’t hurt that everyone I saw and visited told me how awesome I looked—well in context, the comparison is from six months ago to a year ago.

I hope you’re Thanksgiving was as wonderful as mine was: good food, good family, and good old friends.

This year, my family put all of the Thanksgiving "essentials" into a bowl and we each picked what food item we were in charge of. 

I got the turkey!

You can basically just call me Betty Crocker from now.

I took out the giblets and stuffed that bird with an unnatural amount of carbohydrates. 

Here's my littlest brother Nathan making gravy. 

I was really pulling for him to get turkey. 

Aaron got the green beans. 

Here's the Silva clan minus the instagramming photographer. 

What is it about your body that you are the most thankful for?