I can’t remember the last time I cooked a turkey. Really. Call me spoiled if you will. But someone else has always done the job for me. My mom. My mother-in-law. My sister. My sister-in-law. My friend. And for the past 16 years, the woman who shares three incredible grandchildren with me. Her name is Candy. And she throws meals together with a flare.
She used to plan women’s conventions for thousands. Now she speaks all over the country enlisting sponsorships for needy children. And she prepares both Thanksgiving dinner and Easter buffets that include me and my family. She’s been doing this ever since her daughter married my son. I can’t keep up with her. She runs circles around me. A real Martha with a Mary’s heart.
So I get off easy. A couple salads, fresh loaves of bread, iced tea from McAlister’s, and a few different flavors of Blue Bell Ice Cream. That’s my list. Northing more except my appetite! The end of my responsibilities! No basting, no peeling, no mashing, no stuffing, no rolling, no baking. No days of preparation. No slaving over a hot stove. And no getting up in the wee hours Thursday morning to put the turkey in the oven. I seem to remember my mother doing that years ago. I may be missing something, but it’s one of the greatest blessings of my life. Not that I don’t have to cook a turkey. But that two families can come together as one to share the holidays.
From what I hear, not many people have that privilege. What joy for our son and his wife, not to mention our children’s children. No taking turns from one year to the next. No splitting the day in half so both families can be appeased. And no need to celebrate separately on a different day. We share them together as one. We recognize how rare this is. (FYI, they come to our house on Christmas Eve so I can get a turn at the hosting…without the turkey!)
So as we go around the room this Thanksgiving naming our blessings, Candy or I will probably mention one of our greatest. Another year of sharing together as one…at the same time…in the same room… for another year. Two families combined into one. We are thankful.
You are truly bless. His family and my family were together at our wedding and got along so well that everyone was impressed. They will likely never all be together again unless at his or my funeral. We enjoyed Thanksgiving just the two of us. He slept; I cooked and played outside and set eggs in the incubator. We ate. We played outside. Scattered across the eastern US we have family that also celebrated, but not with us.