Thanksgiving Memories

Our extended families were all travelling this year to gather for Thanksgiving.  Since Josh physically can't manage a long drive (anything over 20-30 min,) we were not getting together with family.  As it turns out this was probably a good thing.

Andrew came down with the sinus cold/flu that has been going through the house.  Personally I don't like stereo types but when Andrew is sick every stereo type of a helpless sick male fits him to a "T." 

Saturday I took advantage of the nice weather to try and get caught up on my yardwork and gardens.  Ken removed all the paving stones from the wheelchair ramp to add fill and regrade the areas that had settled.  Needless to say we were both a bit tired and achy by the end of the day.  Saturday night Josh dislocated his shoulder several times.  I lost track of how many times he was up between 10 and midnight.  Between 12:30 and 2:30 Andrew was up and vomitting several times.  Josh was up again at 3:30 a.m. and the alarm went at 6 so that I could get pies made before the turkey went in the oven.  We did get to church in time to practice before the service.  Once the turkey was in the oven I was ready for a nap.

I prepared the traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings. The boys offered to help with turkey prep (which would have included popcorn stuffing to blow the oven door open),  I opted for the usal roasted bird.  My face book page was filled with words of encouragement from "friends and family" who were entertained with thoughts of exploding turkeys.  It is important to note that not one of them was offering their oven up for the experiment.

I was very thankful for the opportunity to sleep in this morning and loved the fresh hot waffles Ken made for breakfast.  I spent most of the day in the garden again.  While I stopped for a tea break this morning I marvelled at the abundance of sparrows and chickadees frequenting our yard.  I was surpriased to see the juncos fighting the sparrows for feeder privileges.  It does not bode well for our winter when the juncos arrive this early.  I saw a bluejay up in the elm tree.  There were moles and mice running around in the mulch gathering up stores for winter.  I don't think they appreciated all my messing around in the garden.  Despite the amount of work the gardens take I truly treasure the time I get to spend in my garden sactuary.  I know that I am lucky to have this space to enjoy.

Over the last week as we have watched the news we have commented many times that we are truly blessed to live where we do.  So many in the world are struggling with natural disasters, industrial disasters, and so many difficulities.  While we enjoy all of these blessings it is so important to stop and give thanks not just this weekend but all year long.