Thanksgiving is such a stressful, nerve racking, angry, cleaning, planning, fun, wild and enjoyable time for me. See, we host Thanksgiving for my husbands family, every-other-year, for the last 20 years or so. It started as a tradition when we built our house and moved in on Thanksgiving Weekend in 1990. His family, which is my family too for the last 32 years, are some of the most giving and helpful folks around. The year it all started, they planned to all come and help us move from our tiny house to the big place. Thanksgiving gave everyone a llllooonnnngggg weekend to help and they did. It was unbelievable. They were like worker-ants. Scurrying, moving, fixing....it never stopped. Our neighbors told me later that they and their guest watched off their deck or out the dinning room window in amazement for the weekend. We were kinda the talk of the neighborhood back then. I mean, there was NOTHING our family couldn't do. They even layed, on the spur of the moment, our brick walkway, layed as "sand-set" from our front porch to the driveway...about 70 feet!!! My brother-in-law, Ken, just saw the "square" of bricks left over from the house and taaadaaaaa!...a sidewalk was born!! Just amazing love. Anyway, that is how it all started.
As I get older, I get in the panic mode before Thanksgiving. I get tired more easily, get angry more easily and stress out like crazy. Probably because my workload has changed in my career...more responsibility=more work. And also this years stress was more prevalent b/c of the impending open house next Sunday for the Hospice Center. (That's another whole blog!) Anyway....it was a tough one! I was exhausted before I even began this year. I had been running on empty for some time....insomnia, awake from around 2:00am every day for about a month makes your nerves on edge. So I vent...and boy, do I vent....my poor family has to endure this until "Mom" gets it together!!!
Oh, but in the end, it was so worth it. Having a house full (35 people at most times) together, all bound by love for each other, for 5 days...seeing the children play with cousins that they only see annually, the adults sharing in the lives of each other, playing "catch-up" on a years-full of news....it just can't be beat...the bond that binds is at work.
I'm Thankful for this Wells Family, for God and his bountiful provisions, for my family. . . I can't imagine life any other way. Thank you God.
As I get older, I get in the panic mode before Thanksgiving. I get tired more easily, get angry more easily and stress out like crazy. Probably because my workload has changed in my career...more responsibility=more work. And also this years stress was more prevalent b/c of the impending open house next Sunday for the Hospice Center. (That's another whole blog!) Anyway....it was a tough one! I was exhausted before I even began this year. I had been running on empty for some time....insomnia, awake from around 2:00am every day for about a month makes your nerves on edge. So I vent...and boy, do I vent....my poor family has to endure this until "Mom" gets it together!!!
Oh, but in the end, it was so worth it. Having a house full (35 people at most times) together, all bound by love for each other, for 5 days...seeing the children play with cousins that they only see annually, the adults sharing in the lives of each other, playing "catch-up" on a years-full of news....it just can't be beat...the bond that binds is at work.
I'm Thankful for this Wells Family, for God and his bountiful provisions, for my family. . . I can't imagine life any other way. Thank you God.
