Loretta's Little Life: Giving Thanks For the Good Stuff...

Thanksgiving was a really wonderful day in our home.

The day before I made our usual two pumpkin pies and an apple pie. (I think next year we might make two apple pies -- I made an exceptional apple pie this year --if I do say so myself-- and it went so fast we should have had two!) I also did the sweet potatoes and the green bean casserole ahead of time so it only required reheating on Thanksgiving. That turned out to be a really good plan and I don't know why I hadn't thought of doing that in previous years.

On Thanksgiving Day Andrew came over. It was really good to see him again. He's been busy working and we really hadn't seen him much over the past few months. But we were really glad that he accepted the invitation to come to have dinner with us. I think he grows taller every time we see him!

In honor of Jordan I had to have Brazil nuts. :) I do love them but to actually shell them yourself takes brute force and these days brute force is hard to come by for me with my still nagging tennis elbow that I've had for 3 months now. (I did finally go to the doctor and was put on an anti-inflammatory for it. It really helped while I was taking it but once the medicine was gone it was back to hurting a lot more.)

After calls to and from family we had dinner just about on time. :) Something always seems to delay the meal but we did pretty good with getting everything out and ready for our 2:00 meal time.

This year we decided (at Annah's suggestion) to use some beautiful etched glasses that came from Hawaii. We received them as a wedding gift almost 25 1/2 years ago and aside from an anniversary or two, we have never used them. We met in Hawaii so they do have special significance! The bases are thick glass but the body of the glass is thin so it scares me to use them thinking they will get broken.

But this year when Annah asked about using them I thought, "Why not?" Really, what is the point of saving the "good stuff" and never use it? We save the "good stuff" for those special occasions but really, what more of a special occasion do we need than to have as many of our family members as could be gathered together for a day of giving thanks for all that God has blessed us with? I can't think of anything more fitting for the "good stuff"!

And speaking of the "good stuff", Tim had the errand of going to the linen closet upstairs and bringing some sort of doily for under the center piece for the table. He came down with a doily that my Grandmother Vroman had crocheted. My first thought was, "We can't use that -- it's too special." But reconsidering I said, "Yes, let's use it! It will be perfect." And it was -- unraveling parts and all. My grandmother, who was born in 1901 and passed away in 1987 at the age of 86, made that and it is very special so why not use it for our thankful day?

Later in the day the missionaries called to ask if they could stop by. Last Sunday I had asked if they had somewhere to eat on Thanksgiving Day and while they did have a place to go, I told them if something happened and it fell through that they could come over to eat with us. Their invitation didn't fall through but they decided to come by and share part of their day with us. We were more than happy to have them (and feed them pie!) as it reminded us of our own missionary son. Maybe someone in Brazil is deciding to care for the missionaries there as we care for the missionaries here. That is my prayer as a mother.

We ended our day with a phone call to Tim and Lisa in Arizona. The first time we called they were eating dinner so we waited to hear from them when they were done with their meal. It was good to talk with them again and catch up!

We had a lovely day filled with good people, good conversation, good food and so many things to be thankful for.