Thanksgiving

Pumpkin & Apple pies

My older son and his family started a tradition called “Pie Week” that precedes Thanksgiving Day. Each day for a week they bake different pies and when they eat these delicious concoctions they go around the table telling each other what they are thankful for – “gratitudes“ I think the 3 year old calls them. By the end of the week when it is Thanksgiving Day they have had many different pies and shared many, many gratitudes.

Thanksgiving 2004

This year has been difficult and sad. It may seem hard to find things to be thankful for but I did find things and I am very thankful.

I am so extremely thankful for the 44 wonderful years I was able to share with my husband. It is true that I miss him and want to talk with him every day. But then I remember all the things we did do and it makes me smile. I am also very grateful that if he had to die that he died so quickly. It would have been unbearably difficult to see him anything less than the way we all love and remember him as being. He may have thought he was losing his marbles but I think he still had a full set.

Watching my mother die by degrees and feeling like I could not comfort or help her in any way has been heartbreaking. But on the positive side this slow death is giving all of us opportunities to sit with her and to be with each other as an extended family. I am so thankful for the hospice nurses and their kind compassion, care and concern for her and for us.

I’m so sorry we had no choice but to move Mom’s things, sell items, and go through things before she passed away. But once again the silver lining was finding the two love letters my Dad had written to her the summer before they were married. So sweet to read them and recognize the love they had for each other.

I am thankful for my children, their spouses, and all those cute, smart and handsome grandchildren. And to think that there will be another new baby in the family next year is something to anticipate with love and delight.

I am thankful for Bee and the Gimlet tackling my plumbing problems. The kitchen sink drains and the water pressure is amazing (and more so when compared with the other sinks in the house). I am thankful they are going to redo the entire house and the parts are sitting in boxes in my living room even now. Ahhh, to take a shower with lots of hot water and not warm mist! I am thankful just to be able to think of it.

I am so thankful to Mrs. Gimlet for going to church with me. Keeping me company, not just once or twice but for months. I am grateful for Q & Lou who check in weekly from across the country and Curly & Bee who bring take-out treats often. The Gimlet has driven us to Olympia to visit my mother so many times while she has been in hospice care. My brother and his wife and daughter have done much more than I can to make Mom’s last days comfortable and easier. I am grateful for all you have done and are doing. I love all of you.



I’m also thankful that my cat nicknamed “The Bride of Satan” is going into the cat carrier to eat, even with the door on the carrier. Hoooray! She is going to be declawed in December and up until now would never willingly go into the carrier since she knows where that takes her (shhhhh, to the vet). I may have to change her nickname to Mrs. Clawsless or something like that. We will all be thankful when her 13 front claws are gone! “Don’t touch my feet,” she says as she clicks and clacks on the wood floors.

I am thankful that there is no water in my basement (yet) even though we have had over 3” of rain in the past couple of days.

These are just a few of the things I am thankful for--it is true my cup runneth over and I am grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving!