Thanksgiving Day, 2007

I hope that all my friends and loved ones had a very happy Thanksgiving Day. We had a beautiful day surrounded by our cherished loved ones. Even though one of us was gone, it was still a nice day. We (my mom, sister, and I) had to cook Thanksgiving Dinner kindof at the last moment.....that was a little bit of a headache. We were supposed to go to my aunt's house, but she didn't tell us until yesterday(and only because I called her) that she wasn't cooking dinner today, she was going to do it tomorrow because my cousin had to work (she didn't have to work until three this afternoon) so my aunt was gonna cook dinner tomorrow. (Never mind the fact that my mom, husband and sister all had to work tomorrow and were off today. But oh well.) But all in all it was a lovely day and dinner turned out great. We had homemade carrot cake (my favorite!) pumpkin pie, cookies, birthday cake (Today was the twins' 4th birthday) homemade cheesecake, pretzel salad, apple celery salad, potato salad, green salad, corn, green beans, mashed potatoes, dressing, gravy, chicken and dumplings (SOOO yummy!) crescent rolls, and of course turkey, olives, hawaiian salad...I think that is it! It was so good and I am SOOO full! And this was for 9 kids and 6 adults.

Today was the first major holiday without my dad. It was a very bittersweet day because of that. Bitter because he is missed SO much. Sweet because we really do have a lot to be thankful for. We went around the table and all said what we were thankful for. Most of the kids clammed up, of course, and the adults said the cursory things: we're grateful for family, health, our freedoms, etc. But then one very special little boy summed it up rather nicely: He was thankful for home. Thank you, my sweet Nolen. And Dad, you are missed so much. Much more than you probably ever thought you would be. But we could feel you with us today...your spot at the table was saved for you. And you were there...even though we couldn't see you, we knew you were there. You are so missed.