Thanksgiving!

We have had a whirlwind of activities these past few days, as I am sure you have too.  Isn't it wonderful to have family with you and to be able to come together on a lovely November day to celebrate Thanksgiving.  There were 15 of us collectively, and would have had more, but due to obligations to other families, our numbers were slightly reduced.  With seven children and nine adults, the house was alive with happy sounds of our children and grandchildren.  We somehow managed to settle in one area long enough to remember those early settlers who braved the unknown to sail through dangerous waters to a strange, new land.  All for freedom.  We are grateful for the freedom we now have because of their strong desire to live without being persecuted.  Daughter, Julia began this tradition of remembrance many years ago, and we continue to share it each year.

We enjoyed the traditional meal of Turkey, dressing, cranberries, many vegetables and of course, the pumpkin pies.  Immediately following our Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, I decided to take advantage of my good fortune, to have available at that moment, my three, strong, male family members, who needed to work off all those calories from the huge meal. As the three daughters cleaned the tables, loaded the dishwasher and begin to put away the food, I supervised the "boys" as they rearranged the living room furniture to make room for the Christmas tree.  The tree was brought up from storage in the basement and assembled and placed in the reserved location in the living room that it has now occupied for the past 17 or so years. 

Unfortunately, some of the pre-lit lights would not work.  After a lengthy discussion between the mechanical engineer son, and the computer engineer son, it was determined that those lights were indeed, dead.  I was given a demonstration on how I could check each light to determine the culprit....unfortunately, they did not have the time as each had to return to another Thanksgiving dinner in the evening.  Everyone left, and we were left with a bare tree and empty house.  Lee and I did the sensible thing.....  we napped, and we rested the remainder of the afternoon. In fact, we rested all day Friday!

On Saturday morning, I had begun putting away all the Fall decorations, when daughter Julia burst through the back door, accompanied with her two daughters and a friend of the older daughter.  With gusto, she announced that they had come to help us clear away Fall ,and begin decorating for Christmas!  Of course, a light lunch for the girls would help get them on their way.  After the girls finished off the rest of the turkey, vegetables and desserts from Thanksgiving, they were ready to go to work.  In a flurry, they were up and down the stairs, as they removed most of the normal house decor to make room for Christmas.  Lillie, age 13, along with John from next door, assumed control of the golf cart, and made many trips to collect items and transfer them to the lower level of the house.  They also helped Grandaddy Lee collect trash, load it onto the truck and make a trip to the convenience site.

Within an hour or two, my front bedroom was filled with Christmas!  As each carried items up from storage, they  used that room as a landing site as it would enable me to have easy access to retrieve later, at a slower pace, on my own!  Our attention now turned to the giant tree that stood completely naked and unadorned in the corner of the living room.  It seems that two complete sets of lights refused to light. This became one of our more challenging projects........................

And so it was that yesterday, with the ingenuity of my daughter, a practical minded elementary school principle, that the problem was solved by simply adding more strands of lights.  We will meet again next Saturday and decorate the tree and the remainder of the house.

Lee and I will be leaving on Tuesday for Durham.  He will have another routine check-up on Wednesday with another bronchoscopy and we will return on Thursday.  We are planning to visit Dennis and Betsy for lunch on Tuesday, and a friend of Lee's for lunch in Winston Salem on Thursday as we return.  Lee has had a wonderful Thanksgiving and good days.  He has enjoyed picking up pecans from the yard and sharing them with neighbors.  It is wonderful to see him able to do so many things again. 

How grateful we are to receive the normal days again with family, friends and neighbors.  Each day is welcomed and blessed.

More Later......................Brenda