Happy Thanksgiving!

What a day! We have been blessed to have my parents and my brother, David, his wife, Bea, their daughter, Bethany and her husband Joel, with us for 2 nights and one FULL day! It has been a wonderful time of laughter, singing, sightseeing, serving, cooking, baking, eating, SPOON-ing and just being together! We began with the parade, of course. The morning and early afternoon was a relaxing time of enjoying each other and finishing the dinner preparations. A couple of us even worked in a pre-dinner nap!

We had the table all set and ready to go when someone mentioned that it would have been better if the table had been moved to the living room (which has limited furniture) so we would have a lot more room for the feasting. I'm not sure if it was meant to be a suggestion to be acted upon, but it was acted upon! We grabbed the table and carefully supported and lifted and turned the table fully set and partially laden with food and relocated it to the living room! Success! I wish Cressalyn had gotten it in video format, but she did manage pictures!
30 years ago when my parents went to pastor a church in Michigan, a lady there gave Mom a pilgrim couple she made for their dinner table. I grew up with this couple. Mom asked if they could come to dinner. I said, "Certainly!" What I hadn't realized was how VERY closely this couple resembles my oldest brother, Paul and his wife, Sally!

So in reality, Paul and Sally WERE with us today!

In the preparation days Mom and I had discussed the need for one or 2 turkeys for all of us. There were only 11 of us but for some reason we thought 11 needed a ton of food. We went with one turkey and we are VERY glad! Oh my what feasting we did! And will continue to do! It took us less than one hour to stuff ourselves and we still had so much left! It amazes me how we can do this year after year and yet some go year after year without a meal like this. We are TRULY grateful for the Lord's blessings!

Following dinner and cleanup we played some Euchre. The game of choice for the day was Colts vs. Falcons and wasn't on until 8PM. When the sun went down we were able to head to the Star over Roanoke. We hadn't been there yet and had been instructed that it is a must see. So we did this together. Ken had access to the church van so we were able to be together. That was wonderful! I got in and Ken asked me if I knew how to get there. I said no. He said, "me neither." This should have been a clue.

We went to the part of Roanoke where we have seen signs for the star and began following them. We felt like modern day wisemen following the star. The only problem is that we went in circles. We didn't have divine direction! After a call to Pastor Bryan, who laughed at us, we proceeded in the right direction and arrived at the star! The wind had picked up at the house, but up on the mountain, WOW! It was cold and windy! But the view was gorgeous with Roanoke lit up all before us in the valley! It was a short visit!

People started getting snap-happy with the camera! And then the cell phones began to ring! 8 of the 11 of us have Verizon phones. Yep. Fun!

We headed home and Ken decided to swing into the mall area to check out those who would be "brave" (or dumb) enough to sit out in a line waiting for stores to open in the morning. We found several at Best Buy and Circuit City. Once again someone had a brilliant idea. We went to the church, heated up water, gathered cocoa supplies and returned to the stores and offered hot chocolate to those waiting in line. What fun that was! We ran out of water at the first store so we went to IHOP and they refilled our containers for free! After we did this (and even a bit leading up to the execution of the random act of kindness) we discussed what we were actually doing. We were taking hot chocolate to people who have money to spend and are standing outside on a cold, windy night for many hours just so they can get the first items. Hmmmm. (Stay tuned. The Davis family will be following up on an idea that came out of this discussion.)

Once we returned to the house we devoured dessert and played Spoons. We actually got my mother to play with us! Once she was eliminated the game took a vicious turn. I have never seen my sister-in-law pound so hard on my oldest son like she did tonight!

The night ended with the football game. The Colts' win put a happy ending to a very special day. Family is a blessing. The older I get, the older my family gets, the more I appreciate who we have while we have them. So many have gone on to Heaven and we will feast together there! That will be the BEST Thanksgiving celebration ever!