Every Day Should Be Special

Thanksgiving was full of moments to savor this year. We started Wednesday evening when my daughters and Ash's boyfriend Rob arrived, all in a festive mood to enjoy one another's company. I prepared a few ready to eat foods, from a crock pot full of sweet and sour meatballs, to cheeses and crackers, and fruit and nut salad.... Since everyone was arriving at different times, this allowed nibbling on hot and cold dishes of whatever appealed to them as they walked through the door. Later we had a wonderful time visiting over the delicious pecan pie Rob brought. Then we got up Thanksgiving morning, put the turkey in the oven, and my daughters and I divided up the cooking jobs. Everyone made a dish or two of our family favorites. As we sat around the table, I couldn't help but remember all the people who had sat at that table in the past, eaten off those plates, and drank sparkling cider from those goblets. I'm so grateful for these people who have been a part of my life, past and present!

Later that night as we ate our pumpkin and pecan pies, I decided it was silly to keep these dishes for such infrequent use. From now on these pretty plates will come out for birthdays, job promotions, and any other special life moments. Do you have "good china" that you're ready to enjoy more often than on the holidays?

We  took a drive to Carmel-by-the-Sea after dinner, stopping at the cemetery with a bouquet of flowers. We enjoyed movies that evening,  and games last night, before everyone headed home.

The girls asked if I wanted help decorating for Christmas while they were home, but I just wasn't ready to move into the Christmas decor yet. I wanted to savor one more weekend of the autumn decor, the rustic fall colors, that feeling of gratitude in the air. So it will wait another week, or at least another day. Hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving!

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is just a few sleeps away, and I wanted to tell you how grateful I am for my family and friends. We are so blessed to have one another, to live normal (well, at least I think we're normal), hopefully healthy lives, to have hope for the future, and fond memories to keep us company through long winters. Best of all we have each other to enjoy today, in the moment.

When I was growing up, we always had big Thanksgiving dinners with aunts and uncles and cousins. My mom and her siblings took turns having it at their houses. We usually needed two or three tables "with all the leaves," Mom would say, to accommodate everyone. After dinner we would take a walk, then play board games. Through the years my siblings and I married and moved away, as did our cousins. Aunts and uncles passed away, then my own parents passed away. Now our Thanksgivings are much quieter, smaller affairs. It's a different era. I treasure those memories of the big dinners with relatives, but find myself in the position of creating new traditions with my daughters. We still eat in the dining room with the "good china," and all of us pitch in on the cooking. We still play games, after dinner. There are family recipes we always make. It honors those who went before, it honors those who may someday arrive into our lives, that we keep these traditions.

May your Thanksgiving be filled with "in the moment" moments! If you are with loved ones, really listen. Share your stories. If you are alone, talk to God, talk to your pets, talk to the pictures of those who have passed on. Let everyone know how much you love them. Let's give thanks.

 

As I sit, cozily wrapped in my fleece throw on the couch, a Christmas movie playing in the background and my two daughters each on their own laptops, I feel utterly content.  How very blessed we are in our family.  We are all healthy, gainfully employed, have enough food on the table and roofs over our heads. We have friends and relatives and each other. These are life's greatest blessings of all.  

I'll be back to blog-o-land soon with more regular posts again. In the meantime, enjoy this wonderful season!

Learning, Learning

Saturday led my friend Mary and me to yet another genealogy workshop, this one in Gilroy (aka the Garlic Capitol of the World, or so they say). I work in Gilroy so pass these scenes often.

 The green hills create a beautiful backdrop...

 I love this Old City Hall (now a restaurant)...

It dawned on me this morning what a busy month of learning it has been ~  three weekends in a row of workshops!  First, the Ancestry Day in San Francisco, then the following weekend my daughter Ash and I attended a mystery writer's workshop in Monterey, then this past Saturday the DAR sponsored genealogy program.  Have loved all of them!

The Writer's Workshop was held in the Monterey Peninsula College Library -- in fact right there in the room on the right in the photo below. 

But my favorite part of the library is actually on the opposite side of the building, straight through those triple doors you see above.  Here is what the other side of the library looks like:

The library sits on a hill so guess what those large lovely windows look out on?  Monterey!  I promise to go back and take a photo from the top floor sometime, lest you think I am teasing you with the panoramic views provided. That section was closed during the time we were there.

Now it is time for cleaning and grocery shopping -- my daughters arrive Wednesday night and we'll start right in with our pumpkin rolls and pies.  Just in case I don't make it back here before the big day, I wish you all a heartfelt

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Thanksgiving Week

It has been a wonderful Thanksgiving week. My girls were home off and on, overlapping.  We baked pumpkin pie and pumpkin rolls, using family recipes.  My mom was known for her perfect pie crust and pies, and to our delight we were able to duplicate her efforts.  We had turkey and all our favorite side dishes.  It was quite simply...  something to be thankful for!

As the weekend rolls into its final day, I look at my daughters and think how blessed I am to have them in my life. They have turned into thoughtful, kind, intelligent young women.  I talked to both of my sisters on Thanksgiving Day and was reminded of how fortunate we are that we are not a family that feuds, but a family that knows that life is too short to let our differences of opinion over shadow the strength of our love, a family that cares about each other.

And now we move into the Christmas season!  We put up the tree and decorated it with our special ornaments.  The stockings are hung by the chimney with care.

Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving in The City

It was a first -- Thanksgiving at my daughters' apartment in San Francisco!  And it was wonderful!  From the time I arrived on Wednesday until I sadly drove back home on Saturday, they treated me like a queen and we had so much fun together. 

Lys had to work on Thanksgiving morning so Ash and I threw on some clothes and decided to grace the coffee shop with our presence as well!  On our way to the shop we passed pieces of sheet music papering the sidewalk, so our imaginations went wild envisioning all the reasons why there would be Russian piano music tossed around. 

We were surprised at the number of other people out and about for coffee on Thanksgiving morn.  Then again, what delicious hot cocoa!

In the afternoon we hung out at their apartment and they made a savory turkey dinner. Ash even made a fantastic apple cake for dessert.

Friday morning Lys had to work again (she was earning brownie points so she can get more time off at Christmas^^), so Ash and I decided to get out very early to hit the Black Friday Sales.  We had never gone to the Black Friday Sales before -- the media hype about people clawing their way through the deals and elbowing people into hospital size injuries scared the bejabbers out of us -- but we decided to give it a try this time.  Wow!  It was so very worth it!  Fewer people than we ever encounter by waiting to do our shopping later, we lucked out with close up parking at every store, and with 40% off many items my Christmas budget was stretched further.  It was fabulous!

After meeting Lys around noon back at the apartment, we dressed up and went to A Dickens Christmas at Cow Palace.  What fun to stroll the snowy streets of London, transported back in time to Victorian days. 

To give you an idea of the "streets" we wandered....

 

The shops sold everything from brooms to parasols to candy and jewelry.

 

Singers, dancers and merchants were all in full costume, but even many guests got into the spirit and attended in period costume!

It was jolly good fun and I hated to see the weekend come to an end.  Now it's December -- my Christmas cards await my hand this weekend, but the house is decorated.  The girls were here last weekend and we put up our Christmas tree and decorated it with both white and colored lights and all of our favorite ornaments. 

It's the season of warmth and love -- my favorite season of all!

Wishing You a Happy Thanksgiving!

My daughters and I will be having a quiet Thanksgiving at home this year. We have been dealing with some health issues this week (Lys is recovering from a cold, I'm getting a cold, and poor Ash has something more serious), but we won't let that stop us from cooking our turkey, dressing, Gulliver's corn, yams, and other favorites just the same. No siree! It may be a less formal banquet than usual for Thanksgiving, but every holiday is special in my book, and we have so much to be thankful for!

And now for the top five American Thanksgiving traditions (drum roll, please -- or should that be drumstick roll, please):

1. A turkey and the trimmings -- 95% of Americans eat turkey for Thanksgiving.

2. Football (American football, that is)

3. The Macy's Day Parade in New York City -- yes, we usually have bits of it running in the background as we start our cooking.

4. Making a wish on the wish bone.

5. Giving thanks -- this should be #1 as this is what Thanksgiving is all about!

Hope you have a blessed day!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to let others know what we are thankful for, so here are excerpts from my gratitude journal....

I'm thankful for my daughters ~ the shining lights in my world, my dad ~ he's my hero, my sisters who are always there through the laughter and the tears, my friends ~ crazy fellow travelers on this journey, God's hand in guiding my life and His promises, freedom to go to church, my work ~ both appreciated and fulfilling, a roof over my head, a warm bed to sleep in, and a cupboard full of food, a car that runs, my health, medical miracles, opportunities to touch other people's lives and be touched in return, America the beautiful, the loyal companionship of our pets, being able to hear music and laughter and a good joke, being able to see sunsets and florescent waves pounding the beach...Blessings too numerous to mention.

Happy Thanksgiving!