Thursday, November 22, 2007

The Last Thanksgiving (not to be confused with the Last Supper)

Our last Thanksgiving in the U.S. for a few years. *sigh*
I did really well and haven't gotten emotional like I feared.
It helped that it was a fun/funny kind of day.
We drove down to my in-laws yesterday, hauling yet another load of Tina's things. It's a really good thing that she's moving into the basement apartment at her grandparents because she has so much STUFF and will have way more room here than she would have had if she stayed in Michigan (she had a small studio apartment lined up).
After I got the turkey in the oven this morning I started working on her bedroom curtains. She bought some great fabric at Joann's last week when the clearance fabric was an additional 50% off. Oh yeah, I raised that girl right!
She's going for a cottage look in her bedroom and bath and it's looking fab. u. lous! We combined two white fabrics for the curtains. The panel tops are a lovely white on white embroidered linen and the bottoms a luscious Christopher Lowell lightweight velvet. She is using clips on rings to hang them, so she can easily switch out curtains when the mood strikes her.
I finished the last seam as everyone started arriving. I can't remember when I've ever gotten my timing down so well before. Nope, because it's never happened!
I like cooperative dinner efforts when no one person is burdened with a lot of work. I made the turkey and stuffing, then the gravy from the drippings. Others made the mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, roasted root vegetables, layered salad, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. Yummy!
After stuffing our faces with the main course, we filed downstairs where Ivan had set up the projector. Earlier he started going through old slides, transferring them to the computer so we could have a 'slide show' from long ago. My in-laws were missionaries for almost 50 years so of course they have lots of slides!
Dad cannot remember anyone any more, and mom has a hard time remembering names but between Ivan and his sister, they were able to figure out who half the people were. And the rest of us had fun making silly comments.
"Isn't that Lyle Lovett?"
"Sure looks like Donny Osmond to me."
"Oh, those are the Johnsons." (how did my daughter know this? it really freaked me out until I saw that behind the family was a wall plaque reading "Johnsons" LOL)
We also enjoyed figuring out which decade the photos were taken.
"Definitely 60s!"
"I don't know, looks sort of like the 40s but could be early 50s."
"Ooo, I had glasses like that! The kind that looked like you had them on upside down."
Ivan had been working on this for a couple of hours, so it was a LONG slide show. By the time we finished it was obvious that nourishment was in order so up the stairs we tromped for pie.
Have I mentioned the pecan pie? My DIL made it, and it was AMAZING! She said she used the Martha Stewart recipe for pie dough which calls for LOTS of butter. Oh my goodness, I could have eaten the whole pie by myself! Unfortunately there were 14 other hungry folk who made short work of both pies and the Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies. Oh well.
My son and DIL brought their new puppy with them. He's four months old and 35 lbs.! But he is a cutie; black lab and shepherd mix so you just know he's gotta be smart. I forgot to ask how the cats are taking Leo's arrival. Natalie has had Dickens a long time, Libby a couple of years, and we know how most cats feel about dogs. They've had Leo a couple of weeks and I'm guessing Dickens still hasn't come out of the closet yet. That's his coping mechanism for any kind of change. Libby is a feisty little thing and has probably made it very clear that although Leo may be bigger, she's still the boss!
While cleaning up I made some comment about making a particular food for next year, and then said, "Oh, you can do that because we won't be here." SIL said, "I hadn't thought about that! Even though I know you're leaving in a few months, I just hadn't thought about you not being here next year."
Yep, that's how I am a lot of the time. I stop myself just about every day to remind myself I won't be here to do this or that because we'll be gone by the time it comes around. Not just holidays, but things like concerts and plays coming up, seeing the lilac bushes bloom in the spring (reminder to self: ask Ivan if they have lilacs in Argentina), older friends who winter in the south and won't return until after we're gone...
I really am excited about going! But I do get a little melancholy at times thinking about what I'll miss here. Mostly my kids. Friends and family. My home church. The public library. Free concerts at the college. Barnes & Nobles. Goodwill. Yard sales. Highway rest areas.
Ahhh.
But for tonight, I'm just thankful for the really great day we've had and the blessing of having spent it with family.
God is good!

1 comment:

2nd Cup of Coffee said...

The poignancy of this last Thanksgiving is really difficult to read about. I've only done two short term trips to Kazakhstan, and it was so hard emotionally. Of course I understand why you are going. Some of our dear friends are moving back to Kaz where they lived for years. It just makes me take a deep breath and sigh. You all are special. I know you probably think you're not, but you are.