Happy Thanksgiving & Happy Birthday!

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Vanessa did a series of photos of Abby just after I got her and this one (which I call "Contented Abby") is perfect for today. I am contented, I am grateful, and while it has been a challenging year in many ways, all is well.

Today is also another holiday in our family. Happy Birthday, Hawkeye Sarah!!

While not actually born on Thanksgiving, every couple of years (like this one) Thanksgiving falls on her birthday. Then we eat birthday cake and ice cream along with our turkey and pie.

We won't be together today but we will call and chat later this afternoon.

I am so proud of the woman she has become and the kind, caring soul that she is. 

And I cannot wait to see her at Christmas! Happy Birthday, sweetie!

I thought I'd share a few favorite memories of past Thanksgivings today. These three are the ones that stand out the most in my mind.

Jessica's Birth

The most important Thanksgiving memory of all. Sarah was only a toddler, we had just moved to Illinois, and the few people I knew at church who had said they would watch Sarah when I went into labor all ended with the caveat, "Sure, we will watch Sarah! Unless it's Thanksgiving Day. Then we can't."

And of course I woke up at 5:00 Thanksgiving morning in labor and with no one to care for Sarah. Panic!!

Luckily, one of those friends agreed to watch her when Craig called and explained that we were going to the hospital right away and needed help. To this day, I am grateful for their help.

I Broke My Leg (but Saved the Pie)

Fast forward twenty years. We were heading to Indiana on Thanksgiving morning for dinner with our parents and I had those all-important cherry pies to load into the van.

I was dressed in a skirt and heels and carrying a cherry pie out to the van when suddenly I turned my ankle while going down the front steps. Down I fell but I hung onto the pie as I tumbled, protecting it from smashing on the ground. My ankle hurt, but we got the kids into the van and headed to Indiana anyway.  

The next day, still hurting, I went to Urgent Care. The ankle was x-rayed and wrapped and I was told that nothing was broken. (I later learned that that doctor was fresh out of Med school and had just started practicing.)

A month later, I was still in pain when I walked and made an appointment to see my own doctor. Another x-ray was taken and he discovered that I'd been walking around for a month on a leg that was broken right at the ankle joint. A cast was put on, crutches were handed to me, and I got bragging rights for having walked around on a broken leg for a month.

Thanksgiving Day Triplets are Born!

When Jessica was in first grade, her class had a guinea pig for a pet. She loved it so much that we gave her one, Brownie, for her birthday just a few days before Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving morning we were all preparing to hop into the van and head to Indiana when Jessie came to find me, her eyes wide open and visibly upset.

"Mom, Brownie had babies and she's eating one of them."

What?? Oh, no! I rushed into Jessie's bedroom and she was right. The dead one clearly had been born that way, but the other two were fine. I removed the poor little dead baby, made sure Brownie and her other babies were okay, and off to Indiana we went. The other two piggies lived good long lives and I learned a lesson - even if you are told the guinea pig you are buying is just a baby herself, that doesn't mean she isn't pregnant!

Thanksgiving, 1964 with my Honeywell grandparents. Clockwise from bottom left: my mom, Steve, Great Aunt Faye, Jenny, Grandpa Honeywell, Grandma Honeywell, me, and Leslie.

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone! I am thankful that you join me here on the blog and give me a reason to write. And I am grateful that, during some of the hard parts of this year (Abby's passing, for example), so many of you have reached out to me with words of comfort, hugs from afar, and more.

I am thankful for you!