Thanksgiving Morning........

It is a calm and quiet morning with a gentle sunrise on Thanksgiving day. We are just below freezing but there is no wind to chill us.  We sometimes have ice storms or snow on this day but it looks like that won't be happening for a while.

My memories of this day were 55 years old as we would got to different sides of the family for the day each year.  My dad's side for Thanksgiving was a more subdued day with uncles and aunts and a handful of cousins. On the next year, my mom's side of the family would be at grandma's house, an old farmhouse without running water, heated by an oil burner. The farmhouse would be crowded with uncles and aunts and many more cousins my age. My Grandmother Brooks made the stuffed cloth hens to help her to make money in her later years. I have a large collection of this "chickens" as she would call them.  This one is made from material left over from an apron.

Our Chicago area family will be here on Friday. We haven't seen the grandsons for such a long time. It will be a rush of instant energy and happy sounds as they come for a visit. Our favorite kind of cookies come to us looking like this. Many companies have perfected the sugar cookies that melt into your mouth so we just buy them. My wife makes pumpkin pies today and we will be cooking tomorrow for a Friday evening dinner.

We will have a quiet day, today, as we ready for company.  We tend to do things in the house to get ready for company in which most people won't even notice. That is just what everyone does for all of our company.  We will childproof some things today for a wandering, smiling, happy, exploring little toddler. Our son says the younger guy will be touching and looking at everything in the house as he enjoys walking all over the place.  I will have boxes of toys downstairs where they can just explore it all.

It is great to take time to be thankful.  Many times we are so easily distracted as to how great things are.  We have had a year of moving from one place to another.  We had hospital visits for a long time supporting my wife's cousin until her death. That whole experience  brought us to a point of reality  where we are here to support one another.

We know now that blessing others and being able to do that is something to appreciatel. Our year will finish more quietly but we have been blessed to come to this stage in our lives. I thank your for your stopping in today to my blog.