thankful thursday

i was going to name the next-in-line of my alliterative-titled weekday posts "thoughtful thursday" or "think-about-it thursday"... i had some recent thoughts and themes running through my head that i wanted to write out. but then i remembered it is groundhog day today, and i remembered how i like to write about it on my blog, because i grew up in woodstock, where the loved movie groundhog day was filmed. so instead, my post is "thankful thursday"!

"thankful?" you might ask. "why thankful?" well, because the groundhog saw his shadow on this fine morning!

i know... that's normally a bad thing, right? and when i say "right?", i'm really asking... i'm right, right? i can never remember if you want him to see his shadow or not... which of the two means a shorter winter? oh, well. no mind, because like the article i read stated, the groundhog is wrong 40% of time in his {or her} prediction anyway. and i say "his", because in the famous movie, punxatawney's prognosticator is a he... punxatawney phil. anyway, who knows whether or not this year's groundhog was a he or she. if it was not a she, maybe it's high time we get a female in office! *wink*

anyway, i am thankful, because no matter how much more winter we truly have {the calendar says almost seven weeks until the first official day of spring}, it has been a very mild and easy-to-deal-with winter in my neck of the woods compared to our typical chicago winters. in fact, the past few days, temps have made it into the upper 40s... even lower 50s. i think bill murray's weatherman character would say that's "unseasonably warm". i'll take it! and honestly, when you are cooped up inside with a little one all winter, that is a real treat!

i think i'll take isaac to the pool today! maybe not. but we can at least venture out on a walk in conditions like these. before we know it, we'll be out strolling amongst all the blooming trees like you see in the photo above.

oh, i can not wait!

well, if you are as much of a groundhog day enthusiast as i am {i simply adore that movie}, you can see more about the town it was filmed in here... a fun little web site about my hometown and its festival called groundhog days, which has been held there every year since the movie was filmed.

here are a few more photos {from a few years ago}. they were taken at {or near} woodstock's historic downtown square where the movie was predominantly filmed {and where i got married in autumn over eleven years ago}. by the way, this year is the 20th anniversary of the first showing of that movie {which also debuted in woodstock}. that just makes me feel old! *sad face*

this is the house {just outside the town square} that was used for the exterior view of the bed and breakfast inn that bill murray's character stayed in day after day in the story. i lived in a house about a block from this one for about six years.

on the left: the woodstock opera house... remember the scene where bill murray's character jumps from the tower in an attempt to put an end to his reliving of the same awful day over and over? this is the building they used. on the right: this is the historic jail house. the restaurant downstairs was used for one of the scenes in the movie.

here is the famous gazebo {in the exact center of the square} where the groundhog ceremony takes place... also made famous by me and my husband in 2000, when we got married underneath with family and eighty of our closest friends. *wink*

there you have it! i'll have to share my deep thoughts with you some other day. today, i'm just thankful for a mild winter, a return of days that see the sun setting after five o'clock p.m. {as of january 21st}, and the coming spring to look forward to. {it's nice to see a photo with growth on the trees while in the dead of winter, no?}

what are you thankful for today?