Today, I made chicken and dumplings for dinner. I grew up eating this stuff. My great grandmother Neno, who raised me for 11 years, would always make a huge pot fit to feed an army that would give us leftovers for days. Neno passed away last year in April, and before that, she had suffered from a horrible disease called Alzheimer's for 9 years. I haven't had HER chicken and dumplings in over 10 years now.

Others have made chicken and dumplings before, but they never tasted just like Neno's recipe. I even used to help make it with her, yet now I have forgotten how to make the dumplings from scratch. Over the last few years I have tried to make her recipe, improving each time. Today, I surprised myself. My chicken and dumplings tasted almost exactly like Neno's from my memories. it almost made me cry.

I am the woman I am because I was raised by the strongest person I know. Neno was, and still is, my hero. She turned 86 years old the February before she passed away. I am so lucky- no, I am so blessed that I had her in my life. This is the second Thanksgiving and second Christmas that she won't be here physically. The last few years she hasn't been here mentally because of the disease that stole her from us, but at least we could go visit her. Now we can't even do that.

This is the time of the year where we take a step back and look at everything we are thankful for. This is around the time when Neno and I would be cooking lots of food for our upcoming family get-togethers and watching all the holiday movies on TV. We would have one or two cans of flavored popcorn with us in the living room, a few boxes of chocolate-covered cherries on our laps, and cups of hot chocolate in our hands. These are memories that I am thankful for.

Neno and I would be starting her friendship cake right about now too. This is a cake that takes thirty days to make. It starts out as a starter mix in a jar, but by the end of thirty days, it will be a fruit cake that is absolute heaven.

I thought the recipe for the friendship cake was lost. I went back to my childhood home one last time before it was torn down because it was in bad shape. I just walked through the mess and shuffled through some of the thrown about mess- and I found the recipe.

In the midst of the destruction and chaos, I found peace. I found a piece of my great-grandmother, almost as if she was telling me that it was okay. I am thankful that I found the recipe for her cake because now I have a chance to make it this year for the holidays.

I didn't plan on talking about my wonderful great-grandmother. I was planning to talk about how Christmas was coming early this year and we were skipping Thanksgiving. But when I made chicken and dumplings, I just thought it shouldn't be just one day a year that we should be thankful for what we have. I have over 11 years of great memories with Neno that I am thankful for everyday because I can look back and share them with anyone any day- not just one day a year.