Friday, November 26, 2010

Let Us Give Thanks

This year was the first year that we were going to spend Thanksgiving with just our own little family. BJ and I discussed going out to eat but quickly decided (since Thanksgiving is BJ's favorite holiday) that we needed to do the WHOLE feast just as we always do. We usually invite families to come over but since we'd just spent the past 2 weeks fighting sickness ( 4 bouts of strep, 1 with stomach flu and a hubby with a double whammy of strep and influenza---and a grand finale with lice, that's right you heard correctly) we just didn't get around to asking which families were without a place to go. So, I casually bought all the food (the house had just been thoroughly cleaned with all the Lice and all) and got up on Thanksgiving and started all of the cooking. It was around 1pm and I was just thinking about how it was our first Thanksgiving alone and wondering if there were other families doing just the same thing when my good friend Patty called and asked what time dinner was. What a welcome surprise! Her husband and son were gone and she was alone with her daughter for the holiday. As luck would have it we had 2 extra places at our dining room table and oodles of food to share. So we had a wonderful day, full of great food (if I do say so myself) and exceptional company to spend a day full of gratitude!!! That evening the Stapley's invited us over for pie. Everyone made incredible pies and it was so much fun visiting with everyone! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!!
Moving right along to Christmas....... In our family the Christmas Elves come by our house the evening of Thanksgiving to drop the kids off some Christmas P.J.'s and a note telling them all of the wonderful things Santa has seen them do that year and some pointers as to what they might work on that month so that he can bring them a nice gift on Christmas morning. The kids always try to catch the Elves but to no avail. This year 3 out of the 4 P.J.'s were too big so I had to do a bit of alterations. Once that was accomplished we sat down on the couch and had each of the kids read their letters. I love those letters and keep them in a special book so I can look back on each year. I love this time of year!!!! I love the Holiday Season--I'm going to try to focus on that instead of the cold!!!!