Everything Doesn’t Have To Go Right For One To Be Grateful

Not all Holidays are the ones you want in the sense of who is with you, what is going on, and the circumstances surrounding it. As I get older and my children develop traditions of their own, it is harder to get them all in the same place at the same time. With 5 children and 8 grandchildren, the oldest grandchild at 18, it becomes even more difficult.

My holiday “began” with completing all my food shopping on Monday. On Tuesday night I picked up one of my grandsons. He had no school on Wednesday and wanted to help with readying the house for the holiday. I had spent the morning, cleaning the living room, dusting and getting the kitchen ready to roll. When he and I got here, we finished a few cleaning items and set the tree in place. {{more}}

That night we made dinner together and prepared for all the work we knew we had to do on Wednesday. The turkey went in the oven, relishes were being prepared and we put together our mise en place, to make sure we didn’t miss a step or leave out the foods that we wanted to have on the table come Thursday. We spent 5 hours getting everything ready and prepping foods to simply put in the oven On Thursday morning.

At 1:00 p.m. three of my youngest granddaughters showed up to help Jacob and I decorate the tree, have hot chocolate and eat snacks. I even was able to show them a few lighting displays videos on YouTube. I am not going to lie to you when they found out that they could listen to Baby Shark and Let It Go from Frozen they were over the moon. They were dancing in the living room and singing loudly.

That night my wife came home, and dinner was on the table. We ended the evening by watching Christmas videos and movies and just hanging out together. That night at about 8:45 my daughter and my 2 oldest grandchildren arrived. It was really exciting to have all the family watching a lighted tree the night before Thanksgiving and knowing all I had to do the next day was put food on the table.

I woke up at 5:00 o’clock on Thanksgiving morning, took time to enjoy coffee and read. My living room had grandchildren sleeping on the floor and the sofa as did our upstairs. By 8:00 o’clock I had to kick into gear to make sure that everything would be done. Turkey, gravies and stuffing, vegetables and casseroles, snacks, dips, and cheeses as well as 5 pies. (The pies were pumpkin, minced meat, coconut custard, apple, and blueberry pie.)

The family began to come over at noontime and engage in conversations and eat snack foods until about 1. We spent the next half hour transitioning to the real meal and at 1:30 everything came out on the table.

Unfortunately, we were missing some of our family. My youngest daughter was in the hospital following a car accident and my youngest son and his family or visiting relatives.

I said earlier that not everything goes the way you wanted to go period I certainly did not want my daughter to be in the hospital or miss out on seeing my son in his family. But I have learned some lessons over the years, to make do with what you have and make things as good as you can.

The next few days were somewhat of a blur as we connected with friends and family, ate leftovers and began to think ahead to our Christmas time together as a family.

Many of us consider Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day, the trinity of holidays. It can be busy. Stressful. My wife and I have worked hard to pace ourselves, so we do not get stressed or allow stress to take over our lives. This year was a little more difficult as I have 3 siblings who are going through tough health times as well as having my daughter in the hospital.

Many years ago, I learned the value of being positive or optimistic in the face of various situations. Not to say it is not happening, but to recognize what I can do and what I can’t. Sometimes it is great and sometimes it is not.

A friend of mine had this to say.

“But have you ever thought about gratitude not as a response but as a force in its own right; an initiating and healing energy that is not dependent on external circumstances but is rather an innate power of the human soul? When understood this way it has the power to liberate us from our self-imposed prisons of self-pity and envy” Cynthia Bourgeois. …..

“Whatever happens, always be thankful” I Thess. 5:16 ERV.

I find there are maybe many ways to gratitude.

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