Thanksgiving Thoughts

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !

Thanksgiving Day was always a favorite day when I was growing up.  We'd go to Grammie's house and enjoy a wonderful meal and all my favorite people around the long table in her huge old fashioned kitchen. (It even had a pantry!).  Coming in from the crispy Nov. day, the mouth watering aroma of the turkey roasting in the oven is still one of my favorite memories. There was always mince pie for dessert,  my very favorite, warm and with vanilla ice cream .   My Aunt Ethel always made sure that my dad and I had some left-over goodies to take home with us.

My family loved to play games, card games and boardgames.  My cousin and I were the only children there and we were included early on in some of the games even though they weren't geared to little kids. We also loved to hear stories from the oldest members of our family.  Really good stories of happenings in the old days.  We'd beg for these stories over and over again.  If you've ever been treated to good stories that kept you on the edge of your chairs, by good storytellers in the dim light of a late fall afternoon, then you know just how great it can be.  This, of course, before television!  Later, when we were a bit older, out oldest cousin and her husband had a TV and would have Thanksgiving dinner at their house.  It was pretty amazing to watch a parade or a football game on that little, funny shaped screen...black and white and sometimes quite snowy but still really cool!
I'm so thankful for the joy found in good memories.  The simplest things that were so eagerly looked forward to.

Remembering good things is kind of like opening a mason jar of blushing, sun-ripened peaches on a blustery winter day when the snow is drifted up to the window sills... and as the cover comes off... the aroma of late summer days wafts out  as you taste those peaches.  These memories are a real treasure.
So when I am feeling a bit wistful, I just close my eyes and open one of my mason jars labeled 'home canned memories'  and as that lid comes off, out will come the warm, sweet memories, put up long ago with that best of all secret ingredient... LOVE!  

Let's give thanks for all our many blessings and good memories!  Happy Thanksgiving to you all !
  PS  And "Please pass the Love..."