I got up this morning determined to post something for Thanksgiving, I considered reviewing this year, then reflecting on the many things I’m grateful for. But I am afraid that reviewing this year like no other would drown the spirit of the day. SO. I’ll simply say this … I am a lucky and thankful old codger. And I want to wish everyone … EVERYONE … a happy and safe Thanksgiving Day.
My 75th Thanksgiving finds us living in our daughters house in Utah, waiting for our new house nearby to be finished. It has been a long week. The buyers of our California house were slow in signing certain documents, making us concerned that they’d back out. As a result, escrow is 5 days late and counting. We are assured that the delay is a bank issue but I will feel better when the deal is done. Some $&@#(& in a Honda rear ended me on the 15 Freeway in Vegas then left the scene, leaving me to drive a damaged but drivable vehicle the rest the way to Utah. My daughter will undergo extensive … expensive … surgery after the holidays with a long recovery. So, Thanksgiving at 75. Can I not be in the mood? (more…)
Last night on Erev Thanksgiving, I was looking through my posts from past Thanksgivings. After 9 years of on again off again blogging, I need to check the past before charging off on a new idea that might turn out to be an old one. For a number of years, I’ve featured a gratitude video I made back in 2011, photos of the many things I’m grateful for set to Louis Armstrong’s beautiful version Beautiful World. As such things do these days, it made me verklempt. As one ages, the good things in one’s past seem more and more precious. This is the video.
Seven years doesn’t seem like a long time at seventy four, but there are so many photos I’d add today but I am away from home with my grandkids, so that is not an option. Since made that video, my grandkids have grown and moved to Utah, we’ve sold our little house in the desert, and my business has gone into hibernation. There have been illnesses among family and friends, some with recovery and some not. we said goodbye to two cats we loved and adopted a handsome rescue named Claude. My wife and I have more aches and pains, but watching our contemporaries, we feel fortunate. Our small cadre of friends and family are more precious than ever. We celebrated fifty years of marriage and I love my wife more than ever. We have some big decisions to make that are making us crazy but they are decisions we are lucky to have at our disposal. So … I remain a grateful old coot. Sometimes the gratitude is a feeling that swells up inside me and brings tears to my eyes. Other times, it’s an action, assuming an attitude of gratitude that reminds me that even when I’m feeling down, I’m a lucky man. Isn’t that what Thinksgiving is about?
From Oldereyes
Turkey by Maddux
Just a year ago on Thanksgiving I posted, As usual in these older years of my life, we are in Arizona for Thanksgiving to spend it with my daughter’s family. Today, we went to my grandkids’ school to help out a Savannah’s Thanksgiving Day Feast. Being able to attend events at our grandchildren’s school is one of the blessings of having a second home near them in Arizona. And here we are in Herriman, UT, with my daughter’s family in their new home and our Little House in the Desert is up for sale. The kids are on year round school here and are off for three weeks, so there are no school activities to attend. Since my son-in-law’s family lives in the area, we will be sharing the holidays … and the grandkids …. with them. That’s actually more like the Thanksgivings of my childhood, when my Mom had both sides of the family over for dinner. (more…)
As usual in these older years of my life, we are in Arizona for Thanksgiving to spend it with my daughter’s family. Today, we went to my grandkids’ school to help out a Savannah’s Thanksgiving Day Feast. Being able to attend events at our grandchildren’s school is one of the blessings of having a second home near them in Arizona. Since my wife, Muri, and I were transplants from Connecticut, it was something our kids never got to experience. Today, Savy’s teacher read the traditional story of the first Thanksgiving in which the grateful pilgrims invited the local Indians to a feast as a way of thanking them for their help in learning to live in the in wilds of 17th century New England. The kids made Thanksgiving bracelets with colored beads to signify parts of the story and turkeys out of cupcakes, cookies and candy corn.
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Music: Linus and Lucy by Vince Guaraldi
In my family, Thanksgivings were always celebrated at our house. My mother would be up late on Erev Thanksgiving baking pies, then up early on Thanksgiving Day to put a twenty-something pound turkey in the oven. The meal was always the same: turkey stuffed with Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix spiked with sausage, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls and one other vegetable. I don’t think the green bean casserole craze had arrived yet but I seem to remember string beans or corn. Of course, there was canned cranberry sauce … the whole berry kind Dad liked and the jellied kind I still prefer. The pies were always the same: pumpkin, mince meat and cherry. (more…)
Older Eyes 