I found this memory from Thanksgiving 2021 and decided to publish it now. That means it is either very late or very early. Or both 😄 I guess it’s time to prepare for the holidays. Enjoy!

It’s a week before Christmas and here I am in the early morning hours writing you a note about Thanksgiving. I meant to write you a Happy Thanksgiving the day of, but something else happened. Something good. Something special and simple and fulfilling. I unplugged from everything and stayed in the moment with my loved ones. I am writing this letter to savor that day with you. My memories flow from my heart to yours ♡

It was us four and no more… Jack, me, Jesse & Rachel… and it was my absolute favorite Thanksgiving yet. The wild thing is all four of us felt the same way. For starters, we were all together. That’s about all I need for my Mama’s heart. Secondly, we were so relaxed. There was no pressure to cook tons or clean or be any sort of imaginary perfect (I am so not perfect. I like comfortable and clean. I do not do perfect.)

We all slept later than usual since we did not have a time crunch. We rested. We enjoyed. Oh… for more of those days in our days ahead. Thank you, Lord.

I began my morning in quiet time with the Lord and chocolate orange coffee with loads of half n half. God is so good.

Still early (for others) but late (for us), we started moving around 8AM. Jack got the turkey going in the smoker. Jesse decided to clean the house… just because. Tell me that does not deserve a shout out! Rachel and I drove to wish my Very Important People a Happy Thanksgiving. They are beautiful Residents who I have the incredible honor of serving as their Associate Chaplain. Only Heaven knows the depths of my heart towards them. I am so very grateful.

The table was set with our everyday white dishes although we did add a table cloth 🙂 We had; turkey, stove top dressing, mashed potatoes, syrupy sweet potatoes (almost 36 years of marriage and I still have not mastered those… oh well. I suppose that has become tradition at this point), fresh green beans for Jesse, green bean casserole for Rachel, and cranberry relish from Manino’s Market in Cottleville. Here’s the kicker. We bought pies. Seriously. I hope you did not pass out if you know us. Ha. The pies were fantastic from Smoke House. We were too full to eat the blueberry pie, so that got frozen. I will warm it in the oven on Christmas Day (one week away. yikes)

We ended the night at the Garden Glow of Shaw’s Garden (Missouri Botanical Gardens is the more proper name, I suppose). We ordered tickets a week in advance (miracles can happen) and arrived before 5PM to walk with the first group of people allowed in the park. A cool part is that we somehow got turned around and went opposite the traffic of walking people. This meant we had the deal… to ourselves! Until the end of the walk when we started dodging folks who rudely glared at us as though We were going the wrong direction. Ha. (According to them, we were going the wrong way. But it was just right for us. We got to be alone… It was so wonderful to my heart.)

Oh! That reminds me. We went to the movie theater the Sunday before to see King Richard (great movie). Guess what? Yes… we were the only people in the entire theater. Wow. We went to White Castle on Wednesday before Thanksgiving… just us four and no more! Thank you, Lord

Somehow I do not remember watching a Hallmark movie on Thanksgiving Day. Is that possible??? I think perhaps we were too busy living it.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving and an Early Merry Christmas to You and Yours.

Much love,

Mary