[As the year comes to an end, I am listing a few of the things that happened during 2010 for which I am most thankful. The list is not in order of significance.]
This is my third entry on Thanksgiving. On October 1, I wrote a nostalgic piece extolling Thanksgiving as, among other things, the first day of the Christmas season. It has always been one of my favorite holidays. On Thanksgiving day I wrote a paragraph of thanksgiving for that specific day. Three weeks have past and I am still enjoying the memories of that day.
In October I wrote glowingly of the significance of the first American holiday while I was in fact anticipating a depressing holiday. It was Alethea and Karisa’s year to spend Thanksgiving with their in-laws. I had no plans and correspondingly low expectations.
But then my sister, Shirley, suggested Jimmy and Iris might be willing to come up. We had a plan. When the holiday arrived Jimmy and Iris were able to make the trip and spend a couple of nights with us. Shirley, Mike, Ryan, and Andrea came from Atlanta. We also had a couple of students who attend our church join us for the feast. If we are in town, we always tried to have some guests who would otherwise be alone that day.
Everyone pitched in; the meal was perfect; the fellowship was refreshing. It was the best Thanksgiving I have had since my father died in 2003. I kept thinking Mom must be looking down from Heaven smiling and calling out, “Did anybody get the rolls out of the oven?”
The day could only have been better if our girls and their families, and Darlene and her family would have been here. It may be time to start planning for family reunions.
No family is perfect; we have our disagreements and topics to avoid (politics in general, Hillary Clinton in particular). But I have a most wonderful family and we are friends. This Thanksgiving those truths were brought to the surface, stirred and simmered to perfection. For this I am continuing in a state of Thanksgiving. And, yes, Mom, we got the rolls out before they burned.
Cleveland, Tennessee
December 18, 2010
JDJ
No comments:
Post a Comment