reflections after thanksgiving

i'm hoping that everyone had a great thanksgiving! we sure did, the food was so yummy! and it was nice to have a day with nothing to focus on except for my family. i'm a bit spoiled and don't actually cook on thanksgiving, i have, but it's not usual. it's one of the ways that i can try to hold on to thanksgivings as a child with none of those grown up worries. thank you mammie for making us a wonderful dinner!

when i wrote about the holidays i had as a child, i mentioned that it was usually just my parents and me. sometime during my early adulthood, my grandma and grandpa roger moved to our town as did my grandpa ted (poppy, as the girls called him) who i met for the first time when he moved to be near us. of course mr. h, kelley and bethany joined the family. as did bill and vi, my parent's neighbors who quickly became family to us. the years that followed, our holidays were celebrated with a full house and i loved that so much!

this thanksgiving though, i reflected with sadness. we have lost three of our family members over the past years. poppy and bill passed away five years ago within just a couple months of each other. the holidays were sad that year. my grandpa roger died this past spring, he was the grandpa i knew my whole life. we have had a few get-togethers since then like birthdays and the 4th of july. but thanksgiving was the first of the holidays with "tradition". grandpa roger was missed a lot this thanksgiving. and it was sad to notice how our family get-togethers that were once big to me are getting smaller.

so please remember this holiday season and really every season that life is short. our time can pass so quickly. enjoy the time you get to spend with all of your loved family and friends. sadly, it can be gone in an instant. i can only hope that one day we will be reunited, all together again. until then i have lots of memories...

we love and miss you so much grandpa roger!