Thankful for Jacob

November is often consumed by the Thanksgiving holiday. Everyone is getting ready for their big Thanksgiving dinners and nailing down plans for the upcoming Christmas holiday. People use Thanksgiving time as a time to reflect and to be thankful for the things they have. In the past, I haven’t been all that thankful around this time of year. Holidays are hard sometimes when your parents are divorced and the horrid cold of winter is creeping nearer and nearer. I hate the winter, for a lot of reasons, but mostly because of the horrible seasonal depression I experience. For years, it started around this time of year, when the stress of the holiday mingles with the early darkness and dropping temperatures. 

Things have felt differently this year. The temperatures have been unseasonably warm and I haven’t yet started dreading the holidays and everything they bring with them. Up until recently, I would dread Christmas. Not because I didn’t enjoy seeing my family for the holiday, but because there was something so cold about the holiday. I don’t think it helps when your parents are divorced and your dad starts playing Christmas music before Halloween, but I think it was mostly the seasonal depression. When it starts getting colder and darker, the sadness sets-in and takes up space inside me until spring time. Typically, I start getting depressed right around Thanksgiving time and stay that way until April when the sun is warmer and everything comes back to life. 

When I started dating Jacob in 2018, things started to change. The first time we saw each other in person since middle school, a whopping eight years, was the day after Christmas. By then, I was already in love with him and I knew he was going to change my life. We’ve spent every Christmas together since.

With each passing year, this time of year feels warmer and warmer. Jacob and I have established our own traditions, like pretending Onyx puts his own ornament on the tree by drawing him over with a treat and playing old Christmas records from our grandparent’s record collections. After the tree is up, we attempt to take a picture with Onyx in front of it. The pictures don’t always turn out too well, but we get the occasional cute holiday picture.

At this time of year, there’s a lot to be excited about. Jacob’s birthday falls on Thanksgiving. If I didn’t already think his birthday was the best day ever, this year surrounded by family and delicious food, it really will be. I love getting to celebrate Jacob. He’s my favorite person and I’ve never met anyone like him.

This is the part of the blog where I’m going to brag about my husband a bit. Jacob has spent a whole year as my husband, which I’m sure hasn’t been easy. He deserves to be showered with praise the month of his birthday, especially by me.

Over the past year, Jacob has done his best to take care of me, both mentally and physically. It’s been a tough year as far as health and wellness for me. It seemed for most of the year that if it wasn’t one thing, then it was another. He took care of me when I was depressed in January by making sure I was getting outside and taking my vitamins. He took care of me in July when I had a horrible case of poison ivy. He’s listened to me complain through every pain and low moment.  

Jacob is an incredibly hard worker. We started renovating his aunt’s house in October last year, so we could move in by the end of our apartment lease. We accomplished a lot in a year and it’s all thanks to Jacob. He made sure stuff was getting done every weekend. If there was something he didn’t know how to do at the house, he learned how and then taught me. Thanks to him we have a beautiful home with a fenced in yard to raise our dogs in and grow our family. He’s done all that while working his full time job and maintaining his 3D printing business. I’m so often impressed with his talents and willingness to learn new skills. It’s not something I’ve ever been good at myself, and I admire his drive. I hope to someday be more like him in that way. 

My husband takes care of the people he loves and is quick to help out his friends when they’re in need. Over the last year, I’ve seen how compassionate and caring my husband can be, not only with me, but with others as well. Jacob is a good friend; he’s not afraid to be a little tough when he feels the situation requires some tough love, but he is never intentionally unkind. 

There are a million reasons I fall in love with my husband over and over again. I’d love to sit here and write them all out for you one by one, but I don’t know many people who would find it all that interesting. As I reflect on this year and think about the things I’m thankful for, as all people do around this time of year, I find myself most thankful for him. On November 23rd, I’ll really be thankful for him. Thankful he was born, thankful I get to be a part of his family, and thankful that he’s mine. 

Happy 25th Birthday, Jacob. May it be your best year yet. To my friends and family reading: Happy Thanksgiving. I hope the holiday season brings you warmth and love.