Thankful for memories

Hello bloggers and Happy Thanksgiving!

I am up late/early this Thanksgiving Eve... Thanksgiving Day. We traveled from Salem today and got to my parents late tonight. The intake of diet coke and the amount of time I snoozed in the car have made me awake past midnight. This year we have Thanksgiving dinner with my family and Christmas at home. I like this year, it is fun to see the fam and then relax and spend Christmas in our own house.

I have a bit of angst every time we travel to my childhood home. Where I currently live requires us to travel from Salem, OR to Eastern Washington. We go north on I5, which is always fun on a holiday weekend.. we hit I 205 (equally as fun) and then 84 and the Gorge which is full of gale force wind, rain and endless amounts of trucks. I usually lose 3-5 years from my life as Bruce navigates this each time. That isn't the angst, though.
The last part of this trip requires going by my grandparents' old homestead. It's not their original homestead, that place still stands, but it's the place they lived that I have the fondest/newest memories of. It no longer exists. Their old house/barn/yard and everything has been leveled. It's been years now, but every time I drive by there, my stomach knots up. I just HATE that it is gone. Tonight, however, we were approaching it and it was dark out, so I was unsure of the exact spot. I knew the roads and landmarks leading up, but as the time came to pass the empty place where their home once stood... I missed it.
Instead, I conjured up a memory of being there. There are so many, but the one that came to mind was of Nana making up Pepsi floats one night. I was there, the only grandkid (what a treat) and we were listening to the Prescott Football team at a playoff game on the radio. It was the year that we won state! Epic for our small town. This wasn't the state championship game, but a very important one, none the less. Nana was making Pepsi floats and we were all gathered around the radio and it was a wonderful memory.
It occurred to me that I don't need an old house or barn or yard to have the memories that were made and still are alive in my mind. I spent hours upon hours there, learning to bake, helping Nana in her yard, listening to her tell stories, "working" harvest with she and Mew as they spent their retired years still both working longer hours than most people do during their normal careers.
I have some objects from Nana and Mew's house. I own some of Nana's baking bowls and always think of her when I use them. I have some quilts and afghans, I love that she wanted me to have her Deacon's bench and there are still some yarn scraps and crochet needles in it that I can't bear to take out. I loved my Nana dearly and still wish she were able to meet all of my kids and get to know them, but some day in Heaven, they'll all have a grand time getting acquainted.

So, I'm thankful that I have a lifetime of memories to conjure up whenever I pass the old place where Nana and Mew used to live. I am very blessed to have had them as my grandparents.

Happy Thanksgiving, I wish for happy memories for all.

Dudster

Christ in Thanksgiving and Thanks in Christmas?!

I am on purpose writing a blog about Christmas before Thanksgiving, to accentuate the fact that I am on a bit of a rant.

There has been some talk in the media regarding the "even earlier than usual" Christmas decorations in the stores. I have grumbled every year about the early, like having the cheap post Halloween candy display flanked by a reindeer... get your own candy Rudolph!

I just drove Megan to her friend's for a sleepover and passed a house that is all decked out. Again, my immediate thought was "Wow, in the daylight, your approximately 6 blow up features that aren't blown up, look a bit like they've been in a war... and lost." I also had the thought that "Since when are woodland creatures playing on a see-saw a sight that makes me say, 'Thank you God, for sending us Your son.' " Then I was immediately a bit ashamed of myself. Examining oneself is probably a good practice from time to time... enter sarcasm punctuation.

Who am I to judge someone based on the decor of their house at Christmas? Shame on me. For all I know, they have a wonderful relationship with Jesus and choose to celebrate the season by decking their house like Clark Griswold, their choice. I choose, instead, to not sit in judgement. I will hope that the early decor in the stores provides an extra conversation for each Christ follower to have with a friend, child, parent or whomever about Christmas that otherwise may not have happened.

Now, this is the beginning of the week of Thanksgiving, a holiday oft overlooked in preparation of Christmas. Well, this Thanksgiving, I choose to be thankful for all the early bird Christmas people, all the Clark Griswolds and the chance for this Christmas to be awesome, let's break down that word... some awe. I hope you have "some awe" for our wonderful and very awesome Savior, whose birth we celebrate this season.

Now, go overeat, overbuy and overdecorate!

Dudster