Thanksgiving

On odd years our extended family comes to our house for Thanksgiving.  That made this year our year.  Isn't it interesting that thinking and planning for things takes so much longer than the actual thing?  I put more than my usual thought into our feasting day.  We rearranged the house to accomodate 24 people, put out games for family bonding ahead of the meal, then set the tables with china (instead of our usual choice for mobs--paper) and even used name cards to get folks properly mixed.  Layne prepared a Thanksgiving message.  Everyone contributed to the feast.  I think it was the best celebration we have had so far.

I've been working on gratitude lately.  I've decided to make it a priority to notice all the details of my life that I should be grateful for.  It is amazing to me that I live in peace and comfort at the cost of so many who have come before me who created this wonderful condition for us in the midst of having none of it for themselves.  They worked and fought on faith that it could happen.  I want never to forget that I am not responsible for my comfortable situation and need to extend my never-ending gratitude for being on the receiving end of things.  I found a scripture in Isaiah that seems to me to sum up this idea:

                        For the Lord shall comfort Zion.
                        He will comfort all her waste places
                       and He will make her wilderness
                       like Eden and her desert like the garden
                       of the Lord.  Joy and gladness shall be
                       found therein, thanksgiving and the voice
                       of melody.   (Isaiah 51:3)

I feel like our little piece of Zion is filled with joy and gladness and the voice of melody.  Well, the inside of our Zion anyhow.  I'm still hoping for the outside (our "wilderness") to become a garden of the Lord.  But perhaps I should feel grateful for the weeds and mud also.  At least they are our weeds and mud.  At least there is enough rain to make some mud.  There is always a positive side of things, it seems.

Here's our Thanksgiving feast

Here are our three babies:  Jonathan is with Audrey on the left (and feeling much better);
Jeremiah (in the middle, in green) is Reed and Dorothy's foster
baby; Bruce sits on his mom Dorothy's lap but wants to get down;
James (son of Reed and Dorothy) is leaning in at the right.

Here is our granddaughter, Rayne (Audrey and Cliff's oldest)
and Scott (Reed and Dorothy's oldest) just after Thanksgiving dinner.

Brother Bonding:  Reed and Ben (in back) are playing
Scrabble on Ben's ipads.

Last night, while I was preparing dinner, I watched a sweet, clean Hallmark Christmas movie.  It was strictly formula; easy to see the happy ending it was headed for.  But I've decided I like happy endings best.  In spite of all the struggles of life, I believe in happy endings.  I think of Mom every day and picture her in her happy ending.  I believe she is at peace and enjoying her experience outside of this mortality.  As I get older I feel ever more keenly the shortness of life.  I now see my life in finite terms.  I see that the end of my turn on earth is not very far away.  I guess I could say that my biological clock is ticking and I don't want to miss doing what I came here to do.