Thanksgiving Week!

It is my favorite week of the year...Thanksgiving!  I'm too excited to sleep tonight...went to bed early (for me) and my mind wouldn't turn off.  So here I am!  Making last minute plans and lists...tweaking menus and schedules...and thinking about my blessings, in general.  I have so much to be thankful for!

This year we have 13 planning to be here for Thanksgiving dinner...unless I can convince another one or two to show up.  Ricky won't be able to come home this year since he has to work on Friday, but I'm thankful he has a second family in Arkansas that he can be with.  Stephen and Mandy will only be here for one day this year because of Mandy's new job.  I will miss our special time with them that we usually have over the long weekend, but life has a tendency to get in the way sometimes.  I'm always thankful for the time that we that we DO have with them.  Daddy and Bobbie will be here...we always love having those two lovebirds around.  We are excited to have Charles and Belinda's family coming this year and bringing Dennis' mom.  I've always loved LARGE Thanksgivings...the way it was when I was growing up.  Thirteen isn't anywhere near the number that we had back then (25-30 was more like it), but it is moving in the right direction.

I loved our Thanksgivings at Granny's house!  All of my mom's family would be there: Granny & Granddaddy, all my aunts and uncles and cousins.  There would be two tables set up in the kitchen and long picnic tables (for kids) in the living room/hall area.  And the food!  I really don't know how we fit it all on the tables.  Granny would bake every kind of pie you can imagine...she stored them on shelves in her bedroom where it always stayed cool.  After thoroughly  stuffing ourselves and cleaning up the dishes, it was time for all of us cousins to head outside.  ( With that many kids around, the adults made us stay outside most of the time...but we didn't mind!)  We'd usually head out to the "woods".  (I didn't realize until I was grown that our woods were nothing more than mesquite flats.)   What grand adventures we had!  Sometime during the weekend, we'd usually have a game of Red Rover in the back yard.  It was the "extreme" version...our family didn't go easy on anyone!  No tv or "store-bought" games for us.  As we got older, we might join in with the adults to play dominoes or 500, but our best times were spent outside.

Well, I really need to try to get some sleep.  I have a lot of work to do before Thursday.  I hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving and take the time to enjoy the blessings of family and friends and home!

  1Th 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.