Thanksgiving Thoughts

Gee, but it's good to be back home.

Our vacation was wonderful.  I feel relaxed and refreshed, but it is always nice to return home once again.  Home to your own bed, your favorite reading chair & favorite coffee mug with the coffee prepared just the way you like it.  No more planes to catch or airport bathrooms to use :).  On Sunday we had two flights to catch and they were both delayed.  The second one was delayed due to a mechanical problem with the plane.  They had to decide whether to use that plane or switch to another.  May I just say my prayers were answered when they put us on a different one.  All this made for a looooong day.  I don't think I was ever so glad to lay my head on my comfy, cozy pillow at 2:00 Monday morning.  

When we left for our trip it seemed as though Fall was just beginning.  Although I knew the date on the calendar, these past two weeks in tropical climates just didn't feel at all like Thanksgiving time.  Now that I'm home it feels like Christmas.  The tv commercials, the carols on the radio, the decorations.  Yikes, I'm still getting over jet lag and wish I could hit the pause button for a week or so.  But, since that isn't possible, it's time to jump into fast forward mode and get busy. 

While we were gone my oldest son was in charge of plant watering.  I wasn't sure I had his full attention when I was giving instructions, but as you can see by the Christmas cactus above, he must have been paying more attention than he appeared to be.  It was an awesome sight to behold when we walked in the door late Sunday night.

As I was running errands today the topic of conversation everywhere I went was "What are you doing for Thanksgiving?"  As I listened to the different answers to this question I noticed there was a variety of ways that people would be celebrating.  Some were having a houseful.  They talked of many generations getting together.  This reminded me of the Thanksgiving celebrations of my childhood.  Every year my family of five would gather with my mom's five siblings and all of their spouses and children.  There were so many of us that we sat around a ping pong table and every seat was full.  Before dinner the men went to watch the Detroit Lions play football.  You can guess what the women were doing.  My job in those days was to make the placecards and fill the relish tray.  The bonus was sticking black olives on my little fingers and then eating them.

One person talked of going to grandma's house.  Even though grandma is 85 she insists on having the holiday because that is tradition.  This same grandma just bowled a 200 game.  Dang, I want to be doing that at 85 :).  Hmm, I've never bowled even close to 200 so that's not too likely, but maybe I can still bake pies at that age. 

One lady I spoke to told me that her children were going out of state to be with their dad.  She was going to go out for dinner with her daughter's friend and her young daughter.  Afterwards they were going to make pie together.

Several people talked of getting together with their immediate family or neighbors.

One lady said "just the two of us this year."

When our family celebrated Thanksgiving around that big ping pong table I thought that would be our tradition for ever and ever.  Now I know that circumstances change and it's best to create new traditions to suit those circumstances.  This year there will be eight of us around the table.  While it is a much smaller gathering than the ping pong table days, there are a lot less dishes to be done, a lot more leftovers to be had, but still many things to be thankful for.

This year I am particularly thankful for:

• my sister-in-law offering to host Thanksgiving dinner.
• receiving a Thanksgiving card written by my sister.  She has sent a few cards since her stroke, but on this one she was able to write several sentences.  I am always so thankful to see any amount of improvement in her abilities as I know recovery from a stroke is a long process.

• you.  yes, each and every one of you who take the time to visit me here.  My life has changed in so many ways since I entered the land of blog and you all have added so very much to this experience. 

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you and wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!!