Gratitude Post #22

Today I am grateful for Thanksgiving.  Really this means that I am grateful for family gatherings not the enormous amount of food or football, although both are very enjoyable.  Thanksgiving dinner was always held at my parents home, except for the one Thanksgiving that my mom was very pregnant with Kellie and we went to my Aunt Merilyn's.  I remember the smell of waking up at my parents and the warmth of the cooking, listening to my grandpa snoring in the other room, and my mom banging pots and pans.  Then there was the hustle and bustle to get everything ready, tables set up, chairs around the table, places set.  I know that I didn't appreciate it like I do now.  All of my mom's sisters and brothers and their families would come to my mom's house and eat, catch up, play games, watch football, and sleep.  I remember the year that we were each supposed to write down what we were grateful for and then it was shared with everyone. Then there was the year that my Aunt Merilyn brought her guitar and we sang Thanksgiving songs ("Hang down your head, Tom Turkey" and "Oh a Turkey Tom and a Turkey Mom go gobble, gobble, gobble all the day").  Then there was the time that all the cousins were playing with a ball  and it busted, so of course we needed to get a new one, so a lot of us piled into my cousin,Paige's Supra and went to the grocery store to get a ball.  That was a highlight for me because I was accepted as a "big kid" although they may have just thought I was a pest.  And of course, the food.  It was tough to wait for a warm roll from Grandma.  I look back on all of those family gatherings with fond memories.  I am so grateful that my parents and their siblings and parents worked hard to coordinate these events and mostly keep the peace.  I did miss a raucous event a few years ago and quickly booked my trip for the next year only to have no sparks fly.  I am so grateful that I am able to keep in contact with aunts, uncles, and cousins even though I am so far away.  But, I'll be back.