Thanksgiving Day

November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving, Readers!  It's a beautiful day in the Tampa, Florida area.  Tim and the girls are in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Jane and I are spending four glorious days together as mother and daughter.  Something we haven't done ... gosh, I think since she was in high school.  We have set our sights on making their home a Winter Wonderland for the Christmas season.  I must say, Thanksgiving Day is a good time to start.

Thanksgiving Dinner for two ... roasted chicken and gravy, stuffing, salad, homemade cranberry sauce and apple pie for dessert.  We ate out in the lanai giving thanks for our day and plotting and planning on what to do first.  We work well as a team ... Jane thinks I have the gift of making a home special but she also has that knack.  We decided to take everything out of tubs and put it in the dining room.  Next time, I think we will put everything in the garage ... it was difficult to find walking room!

We decided to start in the entry and move through the house.  Jane loves Mark Roberts Santa's and Fairies as much as I do so we decided to highlight them as well as do a wreath for the mirror.  It's easy to use things we love making them focal points.  As we would finish one area, we would give each other high fives and admire our artistry.

I asked Jane what she envisioned for the house and her first thought was that she wanted the big tree in the living room at the front of the house.  Now, mind you, this tree is over nine feet tall and the room is on the smaller side.  We also had to fit in a large sideboard, chair, sofa, two lamps, end table, sofa table and coffee table.  We ended up taking the back lower branches off the tree to fit it in the corner and through trial and error found a place for everything.  I told Jane about the battery operated small string of LED lights that I found at Walmart and she decided she'd like to try some on her wreaths, table centerpieces, etc.

Jane's next door neighbors invited us over for Thanksgiving dessert which gave us a reprieve from our decorating.  We had a delightful time sharing our apple pie with them.  Anita's parents were visiting and contributed to the lively conversation around the dining room table!  On our walk back home, we looked at each other and laughed ... we were going to brave the crowds and head for Walmart to pick up the little lights.  Wrong decision!!

We arrived at Walmart about 9:30PM ... the cars were lined up and people were driving like maniacs trying to get the few available parking places.  Handicapped parking?  No such thing!  Every spot was available to the first taker.  Jane decided that she would drop me off, park and meet me in the Christmas section.  I walked amongst mobs of people waiting for the ten and twelve o'clock bargains.  Mounds of merchandise were shrink wrapped and people gathered round to pick up their prizes!  I wound my way back to the Christmas area to find the lights, small trees and mini decorations.  All of a sudden, I heard clammoring and shouting in the toy section.  I peeked around the corner in time to see a clerk break up a fight that had begun over a bike.  Evidently a man had split the shrink wrap and had taken a bike off the top of the pile ... another man had his eye on the bike and accussed the other of jumping the gun...  It was almost scarry.  So many people haggling over $1.28 bath towels worth propably fifty cents!

I waited and waited for Jane, hoping that she was okay.  She had lost her cell phone and I didn't have mine with me so communication was cut off.  She finally arrived telling me that she ended up parking across the main road at a church ... a hefty ten minute walk from Walmart.  I stood in line while she finished the rest of our shopping.  Exhausted, we grabbed our packages and began the walk back to the car.  We vowed to never again go out on a Pre-Black Friday sale night!!

Did we stop when we got home?  Heck no!  Teddy needed walking and we got in a two+ mile walk before crashing.  We vowed that we would get up early on Friday to begin our marathon decorating job!!

My Thanksgiving was not a traditional one yet it was one that I shall cherish just as much as gatherings with friends and family in the past.  It was a time of wrapping my arms around my daughter and celebrating our likenesses and differences.  It was a time of working side by side ... the two of us on a common mission...  I could not ask for more nor could I feel more blessed!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours ... may the time with family and friends fill your hearts with love!!  I am thinking about all of my Readers and praying that you are filled to the brim with good food and an abundance of blessings!!

The blessings of a daughter ... too many to count!!