Thanksgiving......

When I was a young girl brought with it lot's of tradition!! We gathered at Grandma's each year and had a wonderful dinner, Turkey, dressing and all the trimmings...then afterward Grandma would provide scarf's to shield our heads from the November chill in the air and off we would head to the wood's!!! Now that I'm a whole lot older and wiser I realize it was for the adults to walk off all that Turkey and gravy but for us youngun's it was the anticipation of picking out the "perfect" Christmas tree!!

We would walk and walk around those woods surrounding that dairy farm looking for the perfect shape, height and width, that would fit into the living room of that farm house!! Along the way, the sound of the Fall leaves crunching beneath our feet, the smell of the woods, the crisp chill of the air and all sorts of treasures to be found nestled beneath those leaves, acorn's, pine cones, and anything else that came to sight were ours to be had!!! Then there is was, the "perfect" tree!!!! Kinda sounds like the Griswolds huh?? Of course Grandma always had a ribbon with her to tie around it so Grandpa could find it in a couple of weeks and cut it down for us to adorn with our ornaments and tinsel!! Now if Grandpa really cut that very tree down, that we'll never know, but what I do know is it was always the "one" we girls picked out!!!

A lot has changed since those day's of youth. I had to face my first Thanksgiving away from my family, I even sent myself a Teleflora bouquet that first year to brighten my spirits...To me..From me!!! I started my own traditions, the day after Thanksgiving, down came the pumpkins and up went the red and green and we would take the boy's to a tree farm to pick out that perfect tree for our living room!! As time evolves so does our children and for a couple of them they are now facing their first Thanksgiving away from home. I know how sad they are and it hurt's this Momma's heart not to have all of her babies with her, but the blessings and love are always there along with her prayers!! I know within my heart this is the beginning of their own traditions and lots of memories to come!!



This year hubby and I changed our pre-week tradition a bit since we are empty nesters, we flew the coup for a few days and headed to the shore!!! Now usually we both are working with a day or two off for Thanksgiving but this year since I'm unemployed he decided to take the week off, so off we headed!! We really had a very nice mini vacation with each other, a time to reflect, gives thanks for all of our many blessings, and caught a wonderful inspiring Christmas Show that really got me
in the spirit!!



As we celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, we will still be surrounded by family, a Son and Daughter-in-Law who is more like a Daughter to us,a precious, precious Grand Daughter that still lives close by, not to mention the rest of the Hare Hollow crew where we will gather and give thanks for all of our many blessing's and to enjoy a juicy fat ole turkey!! For our children that are facing their first Thanksgiving away, you know, you are here in our hearts, minds and prayers!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!