Book excerpt: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Count Your Blessings will inspire and uplift readers with its stories of optimism, faith, and strength. In bad times, and good, readers will be heartened to find something good in each day. A great Christmas gift and start to the New Year. What are you thankful for today? This uplifting book reminds readers of the blessings in their lives, despite financial stress, natural disasters, health scares and illnesses, housing challenges and family worries. Stories of optimism, faith, and strength remind us of the simple pleasures of family, home, health, and inexpensive good times.