Wrapping Up Thanksgiving

It's the day after Thanksgiving and I'm still reflecting on blessings, especially those that can be taken for granted. 

years of letters

Since our mother's passing in late October, Sister has been very busy with the necessary end-of-life matters. She has sent some of Mama's books and the letters I wrote to her these last several years when phone conversations were nearly impossible and in-person visits were hard due to the distance. Not only did Mama pass on to me a love for sewing, but she and I value the ability to type out our communications (as opposed to hand-writing). 

Especially after Mama moved to the nursing home in 2019, I wrote a snail mail letter to her every Friday. Her ability to understand was decreasing over time, so I kept the letters light-hearted and contained to just one page. Often a snapshot or other art work were included to add more interest. 

When she could, Mama read the letters herself and then over time Sister would read them to her. In the last couple of months, some of the letters never got opened. She became unresponsive at times and mail would get shuffled off to the side for more important things that had to be done for her. I understand and take no offense at that.

Now that I have the letters back with me, this week I have opened all of them, arranged them in chronological order, and packed them away for another time when they might be put into a 3-ring binder. They make up a diary of sorts of my own life over the past five years.

Although Mama's ability to communicate with me decreased greatly in those years, I will never forget that after my late husband died, Mama asked her nurse to telephone me.  I answered, seeing that the nursing home was on the caller ID. The nurse told me that my mother was with her and had a message for me:

"Barbara, I am so sorry Tom has died." 

I cannot tell you how deeply that touched me, coming from my mother who was getting forgetful of people and things but she had enough presence of mind to ask her nurse to call me with that message. Mama was widowed a very long time ago, and she clearly still remembered what that was like. Grief lessens over time but it's not entirely forgotten.

Earlier this week was the 4-year anniversary of Tom's passing, his funeral, and his burial. It was the week of Thanksgiving when that all happened. Oh how I thank God for His mercies and how He sustained me at that time and ever since! It's not been smooth sailing by any means but there've been more joys than I ever imagined could come my way.

Gary and me

So back to working through this week, we took the truck through the car wash, which my weird sense of humor refers to as "the tunnel of love."

windshield with colorful soap

In running the windshield wipers after the wash, we realized something was amiss that made a loud noise. Gary checked it out enough to know it was not something he could fix, so we were able to get an o'dark-early appointment at the Ford dealership service center for the next day. The repair was short but long enough for us to enjoy coffee and a donut in the waiting room. I saw this thought-provoking statement on one of the walls:

Being kind costs nothing

but pays huge dividends.

I wish in reality that this was true all of the time but with that said, it's a good thought to live by.

Speaking of kindness, we enjoyed the hospitality of family for Thanksgiving dinner. My niece and her husband moved from Georgia back to Florida a couple of years ago. They invited us for the holiday, as well as one other senior on my nephew's side of the family, and a younger cousin. Gary joked on the ride over that Thanksgiving is "National Invite the Old Folks to Dinner Day." 🦃

Whatever you want to call it, we were delighted with the invitation and offered to bring dessert. Our friend, Bob Evans, did the cooking for me with a pecan and a pumpkin pie, supplemented with Cool Whip, of course.

Our hosts are devoted animal lovers. The above sign is at the outside of their front door. They currently have three dogs and a bird but since canines can sometimes be overly enthusiastic with guests, and we are all older, our hosts sequestered the dogs out of sight. We didn't meet them. However, we did get to meet Desi:

Desi the Macaw

A Macaw is a type of Parrot. He has been a member of their family for many years. I looked closely at him through the wires of his large cage in the kitchen/gathering area of the house, and he eyed me, but he kept his judgment to himself. He did squawk loudly several times while we were there, and he may have said something to my nephew, but I didn't catch what it was. We were told that he does indeed speak clearly when he wants to.

our hosts

As best I could tell, he did not seem to feel threatened as my nephew carved up the main dish on a nearby kitchen counter... 🙄

We also had ham, mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, a corn casserole (that I could easily enjoy every day for the rest of my life), Watergate salad, cranberry sauce and [surely I've left something out]. 

Before dinner we had fresh veggies and baked Brie with crackers. Wow. I've not had baked Brie before. I could get addicted to that!! True to their promise, none of us left their home hungry. We were given leftovers, which we enjoyed for our lunch today.

our front door

Today Gary turned the kitchen calendar on the pantry door to the December page. I got out the boxes of Christmas decorations, and we put up our trees (2). I'll be honest here in confessing that although I was on my soap box a week or so ago about not putting up Christmas decorations until Thanksgiving is over, I did allow Gary to hang our new wreath on the front door before the day of Thanks dawned. 

We got it at Lowe's, along with the brass over-the-door hangar. I reasoned that since it has no red or green, it looked appropriate for the season. It also matches very nicely with the copper foil that is soldered to the pieces of glass in the door's design. 

The rest of our Christmas/holiday decorations can take up another blog post. 

In the meantime, I close with one more Thanksgiving-related  thought from Christian writer Randy Alcorn's blog earlier this week:

G. K. Chesterton, one of the happiest and cleverest minds of the twentieth century, noted that children are grateful when their Christmas stockings are filled with candy or toys. But what about “the gift of two miraculous legs” inside our stockings? “We thank people for birthday presents of cigars and slippers. Can I thank no one for the birthday present of birth?”

Until next time, grace and peace.