Thanksgiving.....

The holidays are always kind of a bittersweet time of year for me.  I have fond memories of times past as I make  more cherished memories to hold for the future.

The memories of the past, sometimes make me a little melancholy on days like today as I remember my wonderful childhood and the fun times that I had growing up with my grandparents, my parents, my aunts and uncles and my cousins, most of whom are at least 7 years younger than me.  I cherish those moments, but am sad that they're gone.

Grandparents are all gone to hopefully a better place, along with my father, who I miss every single day, and my mother in law, whose loss I also feel deeply.  The aunts and uncles are still around, but have all scattered in the wind as they all became grandparents and established their on extensions of their own families.  We all try to get together once a year for a Reunion around Christmas time, but even that is not the same.  I guess it kind of sucks growing up.

The very bright side in all of this is that I have a family of my own, extensions of myself, and two beautiful granddaughters that I get to create memories with, and god willing, they will grow up to cherish their times spent as I do now.

The past few years, I've created a tradition of coming to the creekhouse for Thanksgiving and then my father in law, my mom and step-dad and my brother all come down for dinner.  Our kids alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas with the exes and so they aren't here this year.

It's traditional to express what it is we are thankful for, and I for one, am thankful for the family that I have now.  I am so fortunate that I have such a loving husband and a father in law that I love every bit as much as my own dad.  I'm thankful that I had an opportunity to know a mother in law, whose strengths were inspirational. I'm thankful to have a sister in law that I admire and cherish, whose perseverance in her own life, inspired me to seek higher education and better myself.

I'm thankful for my children, all four of them, and my grandchildren.  I can't express how thankful I am for my mother and our relationship, though for a long time was strained, but we've grown closer than I could ever have imagined.  I'm thankful for my brother and my Uncle, who are both the last bits of my father I that I have.

 I think that one of the things that I am most thankful for, is my childhood.  I had a really good one and growing up with the two most wonderful parents in the world, parents who worked through their problems and stayed married until the day my father passed away.  It's a rarity in this day and age and I was lucky.

All in all, it's been a wonderful life and I am working hard to keep making good memories for not just myself, but my family.  I love them all.