Thanksgiving

The holidays are upon us now, beginning with Thanksgiving this past Thursday and ending with New Year's Day. Of course, Christmas is the highlight of the season, and it has always been my favorite time of the year - until a few years ago. Now I would have to say that Thanksgiving Day is my very favorite holiday. One obvious reason is all the yummy food we eat WAY too much of! Eating good food is truly one of life's greatest pleasures, especially when you feel too old to do much else! Another reason is that all the family is together, but that is true at Christmas and Easter as well. It is great that we have a day set aside once a year to really think about all the things we have to be thankful for, and that is a lot, even if the world does seem crazy at times. But the one thing that really makes Thanksgiving win out over Christmas is .... NO GIFTS! No gifts translates into no stress. And you don't have to decorate nearly as much either. Everybody just cooks a few dishes, gets together to eat, and then lies around miserably full watching football the rest of the day while looking through all the sales papers - until they fall asleep. Perfect.

This Thanksgiving was a beautiful day with temperatures nearly 70 degrees. Doug fried a turkey, and his family all came for dinner. I made a seven-layer salad, sweet potato souffle, and corn. Kathleen brought dressing, biscuits, and gravy. Katie made a sweet potato pie and a pecan pie and her cranberry congealed salad. Misty brought mashed potatoes. I also made a pumpkin cake dessert that we just love. Adrienne was with us and so was Jamie, Sean's old housemate. After we ate and rested a while, we went for a walk in the neighborhood. It was great being outdoors. When all Doug's family left, I went down to see my folks at my sister's house and ate cheesecake down there. I don't think I will get on the scales for a few days!

It was a perfect Thanksgiving, and now the Christmas season is officially begun. The next day I went on my annual shopping trip with my mom and sisters. My next post will have more about that tradition.

It was a perfect Thanksgiving, and now the Christmas season is officially begun. The next day I went on my annual shopping trip with my mom and sisters. My next post will have more about that tradition.

The other day I saw a plaque that was entitled “The Four Stages of Christmas” It went like this:

1. You believe in Santa Claus.
2. You don’t believe in Santa Claus.
3. You ARE Santa Claus.
4. You look like Santa Claus.

I’m afraid we aren’t far from the last stage! We’ve gotten a pretty good start on the pot bellies and our hair is nearly white.

I really enjoyed all the hustle and bustle of Christmas when Sean was little. There is something magical about seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child. It was fun to make it special for him. We always went to a Christmas tree farm and let him help pick out the perfect tree for his Daddy to saw down. Then we brought it home in Doug’s old pick-up truck and put it up in the living room. I loved the way the smell filled the whole house. For years, we decorated the tree with colored lights and our bread dough ornaments I had made the first year Doug and I were married. I rolled out the dough, cut them out with Christmas cookie cutters, punched a hole in the tops, and then baked them in a slow oven until they were as hard as rocks. When they cooled, I had fun painting them and coating them with shellac to preserve them. Those ornaments lasted for many years until they finally just deteriorated into nothing but crumbs. Other things we used to put on our tree were strings of real popcorn and candy canes. It made a great tree for children.

Another thing I used to enjoy doing at Christmas was singing in the choir. Our church had an annual Singing Christmas Tree, a really big production, and I was in it for several years. It was lots of work, but music is one of my favorite parts of Christmas, and the program at church was what Christmas is really all about. I’ll never forget the year we sang about the Light of Christmas while everyone in the church lighted the candle of the person next to them. It was the most beautiful sight when all the candles were glowing in the darkness.

Another highlight of Christmas was our annual Christmas party with our friends. Most of our kids were getting older when we started doing this, and all of them would come. We had lots of food and played games and took pictures every year. When we first started doing it, we went caroling in our neighborhood, but after a while everyone seemed to lose interest in doing that. I was sorry they did. Anyway, our party became a real tradition. But then the kids grew up, got married, and started having kids of their own. Finally, our families were just too big for our little house, and I gave up having the party.

About the time Sean became a teenager, Christmas got a lot less fun. He became too “cool” to go look for a tree, so we made life easier and less messy by buying a nice artificial tree. I was teaching full time and found that teaching plus shopping plus decorating plus parties equaled STRESS. Singing in the tree became a thing of the past; it was just more than I could handle.

We are on our third artificial tree now, and I am still looking for potpourri or a candle that will make out house smell the way the real one did. I decided to ditch the homey, children’s tree and go for a more formal look with all white lights and gold ribbons. The ornaments are all deep red, gold, crystal, or ivory colored. On top of the tree is a huge bow created by the florist. It really does make a beautiful tree. Our latest tree is pre-lit, making it a cinch to put up.

Our decorations have increased in number and become more elaborate over the years. We now have two lighted, animated reindeer in the front yard, a tree in the garden, lights on all the shrubs in front of the house, wreaths on all the windows, and a single candle in each window. Of course, there is a BIG wreath on the door with a spotlight on it and the mailbox is decorated as well. That is just the outside. Inside I have poinsettias everywhere – on the tree, the mantle, and real ones in a pot next to the fireplace. There is greenery on the big mirror and over the front door. I just bought a new arrangement for the sofa table, and I have a lovely poinsettia centerpiece for the dining-room table. I also set up a winter scene with my Department 56 houses I’ve collected. The kitchen is full of snowmen, and even the bathrooms are decorated. I used to put a separate tree in the bedroom and a small one out on the porch. It finally got to the point that it took me nearly a week to decorate and three days to take it all down and store it away. What started out as fun has become a whole lot of work! (I must admit that I still enjoy it some.) I did give up the decorations in the bedroom and porch. There really is such a thing as too much!

Now that I am working only part-time, Christmas is starting to get fun again. It was great having Misty be part of our celebrations the last two years, and I am looking forward to having grandchildren and seeing it all through the eyes of a child once again.