Thanksgiving

I am going to have to post another Thanksgiving post when I have my pics available. But for now, I wanted to share a little bit about our Thanksgiving.

Many of my family came to my home for Thanksgiving. My older sister and her husband came. Peg has five kids but the others either had to work or were out of town. But, her youngest daughter (and her daughter - a 13 year old with attitude) and her youngest son, Jack, did join us. Jack just turned 22.

Jacquie and Mike came too. They have four kids (27, 25, 23 and 5). Michael is dating Keri and brought her and his son, John. John is four. And, of course, they brought Mary, who is their five year old. Their 23 year old daughter is spending the holiday weekend with her husband's family. Their 25 year old daughter teaches at UC Davis and is working on her Ph.D. I think she is planning on coming home at Christmas but this Thanksgiving was spent with her significant other and his family. Jacquie and Mike live in Northern Kentucky, so their trip was about four hours. They spent the weekend but for something different, they drove up on Wednesday. Jacquie is a nurse and a co-worker exchanged some days with her so that Jacquie could leave earlier than planned.

The rest of my siblings were unable to join us. My older siblings don't attend family functions . . . a long story . . .

My younger brother was making Thanksgiving dinner for his wife's family. Eddie loves cooking and his mother-in-law was just not feeling up to doing it so he said that he would.

My youngest sister is a resp. therapist and worked on Thanksgiving. Her husband went to his sister's house, driving his parents there and back -- about a total 200 mile trip. Their three sons are all in the military -- Navy, Marines and Air Force. Tommy, the son that is in the Navy is married and has three kids. He and his family will be home for Christmas. Erich is in the Marines and is on a ship (somewhere). He did call to let his parents know that he has definitely decided not to re-enlist in June. He will be home in February and then will not ship out at all because the time would be too short. Ryan, the youngest son is in the Air Force and stationed currently in Oklahoma. He too will be home around Christmas -- not sure whether it will be before Christmas or before New Year's. Hopefully, early enough that he will be able to see his oldest brother who has to return to Florida by December 30.

Anyway, my youngest sister had us all over on Friday afternoon. It was a very busy weekend.

Lindsey and I did go shopping Friday morning (Old Navy followed by breakfast). She was supposed to go for swim team practice on Friday morning but that didn't happen.

Lindsey had diving and Zachariah had swimming on Saturday. We then went shopping at Macy's. Lindsey and I went shopping later because we wanted to give friends a wine cooler for Christmas and BestBuy had a nice one available. We also went to MC Sports which is closing and she got another swim suit -- give the amount of time the kids spend in pools, we go through LOTS of swim suits. In any event, except for a couple of small things, I do believe that I am done Christmas shopping.

We have a friend coming over later for dinner and will share leftovers with her. She is the friend who recently lost her husband. She has been out-of-town since two days after his burial. She got home on Friday evening and called, incredibly upset, over the mail. She said that she just didn't know how she was going to do it. They have both been incredibly active in Alzheimer's research, curling (on a national level), the orchestra and community. Her neighbors took care of her mail while she was gone and had separated it into catalogs, bills and what looked like cards. She said that she has hundreds of cards that she just doesn't think she can open all by herself. So, she is bringing her mail and we are going to do it together.

Okay, so in thinking about what I am thankful for this year . . .

• Don is relatively healthy. He is Peg's husband and fell in the shower in late May. At one point, the docs were talking to her about organ donation. He was in intensive care for 6 weeks and they thought that he might be home for Christmas. He came home after being hospitalized for 11 weeks. The last five of which were intensive rehab. He is still doing bunches of therapies but he is doing incredibly well considering his injuries and initial prognosis.
• Herb died peacefully. He had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1994 but his doctors made notes as early as 1988 that there were concerns about the problems he was having -- among other things he worked for a bank at the time and quit because he of the difficulties he was having in doing reports. I know this sounds bizarre to be thankful for this but he was a dear friend and his disease had gotten to the point that you could see the changes almost from day-to-day. Plus, I know that he would have been devastated if he had died after he forgot who Janet, his wife, was. At the very end, she was the only one he still recognized. And, I'm thankful that Janet doesn't have to live with this burden anymore. The sacrifices made were incredible but their love brought them to the place and time were they could say goodbye while she is still young enough to enjoy life.
• My younger brother's tumors are benign - painful but benign.
• My kids are healthy.
• Sarah is still struggling with school and just broke up with her first love . . . and, of course, going through the whole "I'll never find anyone ever again" thing but each day is getting easier. While she doesn't understand it now, someday, she will recognize this as part of the process of growing up.
• Lindsey is doing incredibly well at school and is just overwhelmingly smart and funny and talented.
• Zachariah is also doing very well at school. He also doesn't have to go to the ENT doc anymore. He had tubes put in when he was 18 months old and still has them. But the doc said that his ears and tubes have finally grown enough that he doesn't need to see him anymore. He is still very small (he will be 7 in January but wears a size 5 slim and weighs 36 pounds). But he is healthy and has not been hospitalized this year.
• Dave is funny and loving and kind and wonderful and my grand passion. Don't tell him that because he would just roll his eyes. He makes me laugh and I am so blessed to have him.
• I finished my MBA. I am starting a new job in January. It is exciting and challenging and sometimes I get the heebie-jeebies when I think about it but it is a new chapter and maybe I need a new chapter.
• I finished four squares for the Mason-Dixon project. I've mailed off my SP11 final package (hope she likes it) and am gathering stuff for the Whoduknit Holiday Swap.

I hope everyone that may read this has the joy of finding thankful "stuff" in their lives. Sometimes it is just a great sunrise or watching a kid find a spider web fascinating but there are many things to be thankful for . . . I know that sometimes I need to open my eyes to them and find that they reach in and touch my heart.