Gratitude

 See the beautiful herb encrusted turkey swimming in its own delectable juices.

 See the vultures, forks in hand, prepared to deface said beautiful turkey.

See the feeding frenzy commence. 

 

See the naked, yet still delicious, turkey.

Now, you may ask, what kind of mother would let her offspring attack the delightful end-result of a week of defrosting, brining, prepping, and roasting? That would be me. And why in the world would I do that? I learned it from my own mother. 😉 And to be completely honest, I had the camera in one hand and a fork in the other. There is no way I’ll let my children desecrate a turkey without me.

As with all things since March, our Thanksgiving looked a bit different this year. Instead of having a crowd for dinner at my folks’ house, it was just six us of for dinner at home. We spent the day relaxing, smelling the roasting turkey, playing games and anticipating pie. The kids even had a marathon multiplayer Chicken Invaders game going in the afternoon.

It was much calmer, quieter, more peaceful than our usual celebration. And it made me think. We are at the point where our kids are growing up and moving out. In the next ten years, I suspect we’ll be seeing a few new faces at our table. As we’ve done with Christmas, I think it’s time to start creating some Thanksgiving traditions of our own. I love gathering with my family. And because Kevin’s mom always schedules her celebration for the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we’ve never had to alternate between families. But in coming years, it is going to become important that we have our own traditions in place. When Kev was growing up, Thanksgiving and Christmas were both celebrated with his grandparents. It was fun and all, but his mom has expressed some regret over the fact that she never established traditions for her own family. I don’t want to have those regrets twenty years from now. So in the next year, I think we’re going to be making some decisions. Pie day with my mom and my sisters is always a chaotic, crazed mess…and so much fun. So maybe it’s pie day with the extended fam and turkey day at home with our own little clan. I’m not sure yet. But we’ve got time to figure it out. We’ll counsel with our kiddos and see what they think as well. Their preferences are an important part of this equation.

 

As I ponder today on the many things for which I’m thankful, I can see that my family and I have been greatly blessed this year. Yes, we’ve had challenges and disappointments. Yes, we’ve had to change our life plans on numerous occasions. Yes, we all wish COVID was not a thing. But still, we can all see the multitude of tender mercies that we have had as well. I have much to be thankful for and in fact, Kev has encouraged all of us to allow our troubles to be swallowed up in increased gratitude for our many blessings. And you know what? It works. Focusing on all the good the Lord showers down on us helps us deal with the bad a bit better. My heart is full today as I ponder on all the ways in which my family and I have been blessed.

 

It has been a good day. A peaceful day. A day full of gladness and gratitude. And by the way, the bean juice pie is delicious. It tastes just like the real thing. Weird but true.