“I have not stopped giving thanks for you,
remembering you in my prayers” Ephesians 1:16
As
Thanksgiving season approaches, it is a special time of year to reflect on
family, (including my dog and cat), friends, co-workers, bible study friends,
and countless others that have made an impact on my life this year. The people in our lives are the
real blessings. I am so grateful
for them all and am truly blessed by the good and bad days and the trials and
the joy and the laughter shared with them on special occasions.
So
on this Thanksgiving holiday, it is the laughter I choose to share with others
and the special memories it evokes.
This is a special thank you to my Aunt Lizzie. She always had the knack of making my brothers and sisters
feel special and she was always thrilled when the holidays came and we all got
to spend time together. She taught
English and looked forward to her time off during the holidays to spend with
all of us. And we had fun! The whole family including aunts,
uncles, cousins, in-laws and friends gathered at the home of my grandparents.
We all gathered for food and shopping and we ate my mother’s cooking and
stuffed our faces ‘till we were about to pop, and made plans for our upcoming annual
search for the best Christmas tree ever.
It was a good time.
My
aunt has a very eloquent speaking voice and loves poetry and reading and
invoked her love of literature and the English language to all of us during our
childhood years. We all listened
intently to the reading of “Twas the night before Christmas” each year and had
our favorite passages picked out to be read over and over. But there is one special story that
only my Aunt, my sister and I shared.
You see, we had access to my Aunt’s poetry books she used at school and
we loved to look at them during the holidays and act like we were “older and in
big school”. We were only in grade
school when we discovered a most fascinating poem about a person from TN. Now, remember it was Christmas Holiday
and we were out of school and we had time on our hands. To keep us out of the way and to get us
to sleep, since we were the oldest of the kids, my mother always left that part
to my Aunt while she was occupied with the “Santa duties”. As it happened, we
were thumbing through a very large poetry book and my Aunt told us we could
pick any story or poem and she would read to us on Christmas Eve. Of course,
she and my mother were hoping that we would look at that big book and fall
asleep. Well, my sister and I had
already looked at the book and we had found the perfect story. It was about a man from TN and so we
enthusiastically chose the story.
My Aunt tried to read every other poem in that book but we always wanted
to come back to that one particular story. And so, while most children had
visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads, my sister and I had picked out
the poem” The Cremation of Sam McGee” for our special Christmas story! My poor Aunt tried everything to get us
to listen to another story but we insisted on that poem. That became a Christmas routine and is
still fondly remembered to this day as our Christmas Eve Story!
Yes,
the people and memories and the laughter in our lives are the real blessings.
Happy Birthday Lizzie! I am thankful for you.
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