Thanksgiving Eve is one of my favorite days of the year! We gather at our daughter's with both our sons and everyone's families; our three children, their spouses and children, numbering seventeen in all. Gathering as a family is not what makes this such a special day; after all, we gather at our home for Sunday dinners on a regular basis. No, Thanksgiving Eve is special because of a family tradition we have had for more than a decade. It's the Thanksgiving Tablecloth. In 2003, Linda bought a plain muslin tablecloth on which we wrote that for which we were thankful in that past year. Every year since, we've added to it till we have to squeeze our gratitude into whatever spaces we can manage to find. It bears a record of blessings we treasure, including the outline of Nathan, laid there when he was but a month old, ever-growing hand tracings of Alex and Abi, illegible scribblings of grandchildren who were toddlers, with parental interpretations, and our own remembrances of everything from merely having made it through the year intact to this year's gratitude for our new pastor and a healthy Park church we've been privileged to hand over to his leadership. These past eleven years have brought much change into our lives, many challenges, but also many blessings. Our tablecloth is one way we have of keeping count.
After this time of recollection and thanksgiving, we gather in the living room to watch a scene in "A Christmas Story," after which son in law Todd ceremoniously brings the Leg Lamp (Yes, he has a genuine, full size Leg Lamp, given to him by his sisters in law some years ago. He sets it on the table in the dining room window, accompanied by appreciative cheers, after which everyone except Jessie troops outdoors, quoting the movie script and cheering while Jessie obligingly moves the lamp to the right and left. For the Andersen/Baileys, the Christmas season has officially begun! Am I grateful? You bet!
No comments:
Post a Comment