Today on my facebook memories I saw that I did Thirty Days of Gratefulness posts in November 2017. I think that is a fantastic idea and I’m going to attempt it again. Here’s the image I am using this year, from Hella Mama Things:

Today is Something in the Room.

I am thankful for our TV. I know that sounds a little odd and materialistic, but hear me out. When Ben and I graduated college and got real jobs, we bought a brand new giant TV. It was a big box TV, 36 glorious inches, and it weighed a TON. We bought a big fancy wooden cabinet for it, with plenty of room to hold our VCR and all our VHS cassettes, plus room for a equalizer, our CD player, and cassette player. We had a few more spaces for electronics, so we picked up a record player and a super cool laserdisc player and added those to the cabinet. Oh, and we got the TV at Best Buy or something like that and made payments on it. This was an extremely expensive TV. Probably the most expensive one they had. I know it was the biggest. I remember that they also had 35 inch TVs, but we went for the 36. Just cause.

So, after a few years, plasma TVs became a thing. We did not buy one. Ben said as the technology improved, they would get much cheaper. Then the other TVs came out…was it LED? We didn’t get that either. We didn’t get a smart TV. We just kept waiting. Lenora, Bennett, and Belinda came along and we didn’t get a new TV. We just kept using the big old TV. When over-the-air TV went digital, we had to get converter boxes for the big TV, and also for the one in our bedroom, which I had bought at a garage sale when I was in high school.

The massive TV wasn’t always convenient, and it was also scary when I would catch a child climbing on the cabinet to get something off the top. They would be severely reprimanded and informed that they could DIE if that TV fell on something. I couldn’t even lift it. The sucker was that big.

But flat screens TVs seemed too expensive and too extravagant.

But then the old TV died.

So we bought the flat screen TV that Krislyn had, and didn’t want. And then a remote got thrown and then that TV broke. Like after a week. The flat screen turned out to be not as hardy as the big box tv, which could take flying remotes and also crayon drawings on the screen. So when I saw a listing on craigslist for another massive box TV, for basically nothing, we got that.

I don’t remember the year we finally upgraded, but I do know that we had a box tv for a very long time. A very, very long time. So long that when people would come to our house for the first time, they would comment on it. Like…wow, you still have a box tv? And…I haven’t seen one of those in a while. Stuff like that. But one Christmas we all received Visa gift cards. And we were thinking about what to buy and the suggestion came up to pool all the money and get a flat screen tv. I thought I suggested it but Bennett said recently that it was him, and I’m sure that he’s right. Anyway, we went to Walmart with all our shiny gift cards and had enough to get a fancy smart TV and an adjustable bracket to put it on the wall. And what a TV it was! Biggest screen we’d had yet, and so clear and easy to use. Quick access to Netflix and whatever other apps we had at that time. The kids could finally play their video games for four people instead of trying and failing to play together on a square screen. And no more letterboxed screens. Everything we watched was either letterboxed or cut off on the sides until the new TV. Not a huge deal, but pretty nice to have them gone. We all enjoyed the new TV, and we did that together.

That’s why I’m thankful for it. It has allowed my family to gather together and laugh together, and to cry together. We’ve watched old home movies, old cartoons, and crazy animes. While we watch, we laugh, and talk, and pause the show to look something up, and enjoy each other’s comapny. We don’t always spend a lot of time together, but the TV has been a way that we can connect as a family. I suppose that’s not something to be proud of, is it? Time spent in front of a screen? But we’re not sitting like zombies staring at it. We’re connecting, and sharing snacks and laughter, and just filling the same space…for a little while. With children already grown or almost there, I am thankful for any time we spend together as a family. This TV gives me more of those times. And I am thankful for it.