“Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.”
— The Hausa of NigeriaThanksgiving is for giving thanks and I have lots to be thankful for, the most important being family, friends, and especially my health. This was a holiday of firsts for me - the first time I would be spending Thanksgiving at my oldest son's [Matt] home along with this girlfriend Allison and three other friends [Sonja, Kenny and Lindsey]. It would also be the first time in 22 years that I didn't spend the day with the youngest son Daniel. Sweet and bittersweet all at the same time.
Preparing and choreographing a Thanksgiving meal is quite a creative process in itself. The turkey needs to be in the oven at just the right time, while all the side dishes are prepared, to all come together in a delicious feast of shear indulgence. It's funny how after all those hours of preparation, one's stomach is full to bulging after only what seems like a few minutes of eating. Oh and let's not forget the desserts ... hmmm ... I always manage to find some extra room homemade pumpkin pie!
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| Let's eat! [Allison, Matt, Kenny, Sonja, Lindsey and me] |
And if that wonderful meal wasn't enough, Sonja and Lindsey had other plans. After clearing the dinner table, they transformed it into an ornament decorating work station full of colorful bulbs, glitter, glue, sequins, stars, felt, popsicle sticks, paint, and other assorted craft items, to share with us their family tradition. Time to let the imagination run wild. It was so neat to see all these young people dive in without reservation and start making memories. Not sure if they saw it that way but I did. I wonder if years from now they'll dig out one of those ornaments out and remember the time we spent around the table making them? Will they know how much they touched my life and how very proud of am of all of them? By the way, four of them are on active duty serving in the US Navy.
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| Time to get creative! |
Now that we are officially in the holiday season, I hope that you will take the time to make some memories, share a tradition, and be a spark of light in someone's life. Oh and don't forget to be creative!
Looks like you had a really nice Thanksgiving. What a great idea to decorate ornaments - fun!! On a side note re: your glass blowing entry. Our good friend in Colorado is into glass blowing. They have a house full of unbelievable hand blown glass.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the remainder of your time in Hawaii!!!!
I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. So when you going to Colorado...oh, and can I come too?
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