Family

Thanksgiving is coming early at my house. In days of yore Thanksgiving lasted ten days at my house. It was always the best time of the year. With Abe and Adam living in various parts of the country, I always counted these days as my blessings for the year. When we started this tradition, there were no grandchildren, and now there are many. It is harder to bring families together for these holidays when families are spread out and children are growing up!

It was to my surprise that I had calls from each son saying they were coming for five days…not for the day itself, but for five early days. Does that matter to me? Of course not! Those of you with children living far away understand how I feel about this. Any time I can get my children together, I am the luckiest mom on earth.

First Adam called with the good news. Then Abe. (Were they talking about this before they called me?) It is marvelous to know my children and their children want to come for five days. It is not a lot, but I will take it! The first thing to do is to close the Airbnb for the week! The children fill up the entire house! The next thing is to begin the list making of chores and food shopping! Rachel and I sit knee to knee in Caleo making plans, menus, and just possibilities! Aaron pops in after hunting to lend his voice to our plans. We tell him to just keep drinking his coffee!

Faith calls me almost every day. She is most excited to be coming. Last summer she planted one lovely little pumpkin seed in my compost heap. I did not think twice about it when she found that one lonely little seed. I told her what it was and she planted it. I forgot all about it. Truthfully, the way she shoved it into the heap, I knew we would not be seeing anything come of that. Oh was I wrong! It was a couple of weeks after she left that I saw the beginning of the plant. It began to grow and became a huge vine that took over most of my backyard. I had to mow around it, walk around it to get to the rain barrel and the garden. It felt a bit like Jack and the Beanstalk. I took photos of the plant growing. Then the pumpkins began. Oh, just blossoms, of course and then the pumpkins. I again took photos for Faith. As a little girl from the south, she does not know about climate or winter so she kept telling me she couldn’t wait for next summer to see her vine and her pumpkins. It was a little hard to tell her that they will all be gone by next summer. Alas, alas. She is coming to see her pumpkins. I kept hers on my back porch to keep them away from the frost and freezing temperatures, and now that she is coming to see them, I get to share the love of cooking with her. We will cut up one of her pumpkins, cook it down and make pumpkin pies. I want her to see the entire process. We will also save the seeds for summer. (How many pumpkins can I possibly grow in my little yard?)

Noah called about the leaves. “Will there be leaves, Nannie?” I assure him there will be leaves for raking and jumping into. “Will there be snow, Nannie?” I hedge around that question. I tell him maybe. “Will we go to Dollar General?” That is their favorite shopping place in Angola. I assure him that we will do that.

During all the planning, Adam secured the balcony at the Brokaw for Sunday for all of the girls to watch “Wicked” as it makes it’s debut next week. I love events like that where we can experience fun times together.

I think all in all, my job is to create memories for my family…especially all of the children. I want them to have cocoa with candy canes, read books with me late into the night, share dinners, build campfires for s’mores. Most of all I am grateful that in a few days, all the beds in my house with house the grandchildren.

I will tuck them in nightly with a kiss and hug. I want them to remember this week when today is a long time ago.