With about fifteen Eyrealmers along with her own family of five children celebrating Thanksgiving weekend in her house, not to mention family members from her husband’s family the week before, our daughter Shawni posted these poignant thoughts on her blog this week. I think she speaks for many of us:
Thanksgiving has come and gone, and no matter how I tried to pull myself in to this computer and express my complete gratitude for so many hoards of blessings I just couldn’t peel myself away from the craziness to do it. So I’ll just sum up a couple things I’m thankful for now that it’s all over:
1) Extended family…the ones Dave and I grew up in. We couldn’t have had better examples and love growing up and it just keeps going. How grateful I am for those relationships, and the chance we had to nurture and build some of them this past couple weeks.
2) Our family. I must admit, as much as I absolutely adored having so much family around the last couple weeks, I am SOOO thankful for my own little family and the peace we had last night as we added the finishing touches of our Christmas decorations together and read our first real Christmas story under the tree in just the lights gleaming from it’s branches. Despite Elle not being able to sit still for more than a minute and Lucy trying to pull off Christmas decorations and Gracie being distracted about a hundred times, we read “A Christmas Carol” and the real spirit of Christmas started descending gracefully around us as we nestled there together in the twinkling lights of the tree. Just for a minute, because interruptions are enough to jostle that spirit away pretty quickly, but I felt it inching it’s way in. Now if we can just “be still” for long enough in all the hustle-bustle of the season I’m craving that spirit to spread over us like a warm blanket and help us remember the true meaning of this season.