A Memory...

...from Thanksgiving past:

When D and I were in our first year of seminary, we stayed in TX for the big Feast and invited some seminary friends to eat with us. This was a really big deal for us as we had always travelled back to family for this occasion and the new friendships we had made thus far were still, well, new.

With great confidence I bought the turkey several weeks in advance. I had never prepared one before, nor had I ever paid the least bit of attention to anyone else's preparation of one, and so I figured it would be wise to have all the shopping done nice and early. It was a fresh turkey, by the way. Fresh turkeys do not stay fresh for several weeks in advance of the Feast. Fresh turkeys that aren't fresh tend to make this fact known in dreadfully unmistakeable ways!! Lucky for me, the local WalMart had also made a mistake with my fresh turkey. The buy date had been mislabelled as if it were frozen and so we were able to trade in the nasty bird for a non-nasty bird.

My confidence that I could actually prepare an edible Feast was a bit shaken by this drama, not helped at all by the disgusted look on the face of the butcher at the WalMart, but I wasn't going to give up. Thursday morning I popped the new turkey in the oven, tucked neatly into its little turkey-baking bag, and I went on with my other preparations. The guests arrived and we all were enjoying conversation over appetizers, when little D decided to check out how the turkey was doing. He peeked in the oven, and in a voice that only a 5 year old boy can possess when you least want him to, he said, "What the h--l is that"! You could have heard the proverbial pin drop.

We were thankfully amongst true friends that day who at least pretended like they believed us when we insisted that we really don't talk like that in our home and we had no idea where he learned it, etc.

...from Thanksgiving present:

C and J were helping me clean in preparation for the company Thursday morning. It was so nice to have their help as I once again prepared the whole meal (only with a frozen turkey this time). As she dusted around my big pumpkin flavored candle which I have enjoyed the past few Thanksgivings, J asked: "Can we light the stinky candle today"? Oh! Wow! Maybe not everyone is as crazy about it as I am!

D and I laugh over that fresh turkey/cussing incident every Thanksgiving and this year, the re-telling of it was just as funny as always. I am somewhat amazed that another Thanksgiving has come and gone with yet another memory to add to the others.

And I pray that my heart will choose to remain very aware of all that I have to be thankful for. Thankful for the memories from the past, the blessings that are in the present, and the hope of the future that God has in store for our family!