Thankful

Ali does not want to participate in giving thanks or saying what he's thankful for, at first. Later, after Leila and I have started eating, he decides he wants to pray, too. But first he has to finish chewing on the green bean he's stuffed into his mouth. Then he says his prayer.
He doesn't eat much, but gnaws for a minute on a turkey leg. Leila has one, too. Then he wants to get a stuffed animal from his room. I go with him because it is dark. Once back at the table he announces he is ready to say what he's thankful for. "My puppy and my backpack."
Leila has already said she is thankful for everything.
I'm thankful for my healthy children, my mother and father and brother and sister and their families, and my H, who is a good man who carves the turkey and washes up the pots and pans, that we have a house to live in and cars that still work.
Ali keeps wandering into the kitchen looking for the "chicken." That's all he wants to eat. The rest of us will dig into homemade pumpkin pie and home whipped cream. (My new Kitchenaid got away from me, and it's practically butter, but still delicious.)