A Decade of Memories

The Thanksgiving Table

Fast forward to Thanksgiving! It seems that I have jumped from summer to fall to this in a matter of three posts! I apologize for not posting more often, but I have had some trouble with Google allowing me to upload photos....apparently, I have exceeded my FREE limit. However, I was able to add these later and am still working on fixing the problem. I just haven't had time to investigate it thoroughly yet.  

This was our second celebrated Thanksgiving in our home since we moved in over 2 years ago, but we have lived in this area for over a decade. Other than my hometown, this is the most we have lived in one place. Immediately, upon our arrival here ten years ago, we were befriended by our dear friends who shared this day and have shared many days in the pages of my life and in this blog. You will be sure to recognize them :) We are very blessed by their presence in our lives and their example to us in their love for others, including us!

In order to celebrate our gratitude to God and to them in this season of Thanksgiving, we did a couple of new things. I wanted to spend some time reminiscing and remembering special times with them over the last ten years so I compiled trivia from each of them, asking for ten remembrances from each. Everyone had such great memories and it was so hard to limit the trivia to just twelve for our keepsake booklet at each place setting. I finally was able to content myself with putting twelve in the book, but still using the other lists during dinner to relive funny moments and special times too. I tried to make sure each person's input was included.    

Inside the book were memories of:
Graffitti spotted on a hike belonging to mutual friends announcing their engagement,, first gifts of Christmas, a story written from the perspective of a blanket, the heat wave we experienced along with a broken down car and the re-packing into a rental so we could continue our vacation, the sarcasm of my dear husband when I lost my sled whil sledriding and asked to use his (he said, "Get your own sled":)), occassions when our daughters wore the same dress, the writing of a parody of a song by the Voetburg family called "Fall" (or is it "Jump"?), an occassion when one daughter who hates to dress up was forced to wear a dress for a "birthday tea",  the number of times surprise parties have been done and for whom, the attire of certain members during a windstorm while camping in northern Idaho, the acting pastor for the funeral of Molina the Mole,  and the disastrous event that struck both famillies at different times close to significant birthdays.  All wonderful memories and cause to celebrate our continued friendship.

Also, being a fan of Ann Voskamp's, author of One Thousand Gifts, I printed out for each girl, this little booklet below. It is meant to be used to record 7 gifts, good and perfect, for each of the seven days of the week. It has lovely illustrations and is a great reminder to us to record the moments of God's grace towards us each and every day...a reminder to look for God and to thank him at ALL times. 

I also created a thanksgiving tree, using branches from our property. There were none left with colorful leaves, but that was all right, because I used printed leaves with Bible verses on their fronts and space behind for something we are each thankful for. It served as our centerpiece at the table. What are some of the things you are or were thankful for during your celebration? 

Everyone shared, adding things like:

Beauty and eyes to see it, each other, coffee (twice :)), family, amazing music, food, an awesome life, challenges, good friends, laughter, memories, the loving kindness of a merciful God, friendship we share with one another, food, water, shelter, animals except for horses, my loving family, faithful and fun friends, for God's mercies that are new every morning, some music, shopping with friends, and this tree!

It's funny as I read over these, I can almost assign their choices to the person who wrote it based on  just knowing them and their personalities (not just their handwriting). Some make me laugh or smile and some make me glad to know they opened up their hearts to me/us allowing us to know them even better.

Sharing a memory, better forgotten, but still amusing :)

The lovely couple

We were lacking one daughter amongst our friends today. She had been invited to a friend's home from college. She was very much missed. She shared some of her memories with us via Facebook and it is certain that she was a large part of our reminiscing and remembering.

 

It was a day of thanksgiving and gratitude made even more so by a gracious Father who loves us so much and extends grace and mercy to us unceasingly. We hope your day was blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, Ellie