The Kick-Off

It’s Sunday night after Thanksgiving. The kids are down and Jeff is at a meeting. For the first time in several days, it’s quiet here. Today, the last plate of leftover Thanksgiving was eaten for lunch and the last empty box of Christmas decorations made it to the attic not to be seen again until January. I think we made the most of Thanksgiving. I teased Jeff that I think he gets more excited about Thanksgiving than he does about Christmas. It’s sort of like a kick-off for the season, I guess. Lots of anticipation of what is to come.

Wednesday night we invited our cul de sac to the backyard for s’mores. Since the cold blew in that day, everyone came wrapped and covered with coats, hats, scarves and mittens. We warmed them up with wassail, coffee and a big fire. To my amusement, I found out some people are serious about their s’mores—2 marshmallows, 1 marshmallow, gold marshmallow, black marshmallow, chocolate stuck inside marshmallow etc…. When they left, Jeff and I and the kids toasted ourselves until the fire was gone (and the rest of the wassail).

Thursday morning brought the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to our living room as well as strange sounds from the kitchen as the kids watched and commented on Jeff’s preparing the turkey.

Brighton kept asking if the bird was dead-- such insight. The house began to smell like most every house does on Thanksgiving Day as the turkey began to cook. When our friends arrived with armfuls of their traditional contributions, we got to eat this once-a-year meal. We ended the night with our “thankful cards”. Each of us writes something he is thankful for about each member of the family and leaves the card under their pillow. It’s really sweet if we can get Julia and Brighton to slow down and think. This year, Brighton said he was thankful that Daddy took him to restaurants. That is so much his love language—anything but my cooking! Last year, Julia was thankful that Daddy stained our patio (??) and this year she was thankful that I was her teacher. I make 4x6 cards and put them in a little book for each of us.

Friday morning, I woke up with Christmas garland and ribbon in my eyes. Jeff handed me a big cup of coffee and cheered me on. Julia got most of the Thanksgiving stuff down while I started pulling out lots of memories in the form of Christmas decorations. She was a big help for quite a while whereas Brighton just wanted to know what was for lunch. (I told him I would eat whatever he wanted to fix for me.)

That night we read a new Christmas book to them that a friend of mine and I found during storytime at Barnes and Nobles one Friday. It’s called Mortimer’s Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman. Precious. It’s about a little mouse looking for a new home and truly gets “exceedingly abundantly more than [he] could ever ask or imagine”. We told the kids that the book was a clue to their surprise for Saturday morning. So the next morning, we made Mortimer’s new house—a gingerbread house and that’s what they call it, “Mortimer’s new house”. Poor Mortimer has also been blamed for missing house ornamentations made of sugar!

So to top off the weekend, there was the traditional Thanksgiving Day Georgia/Georgia Tech game at 2:30 on Saturday. Since NO ONE in Texas cares about this game, we had to PAY a whopping $21.95 just to watch it! However, it turned out to be the best money spent all weekend. Georgia won for the 7th time in a row!! Back in September I had some friends pick me up 2 Bulldog shirts while in Athens just for this occasion. I secretly put them on the kids before rest time thinking how fun it would be to see Jeff’s face as they came down the stairs. Since the little bees where getting smushed, it was way more fun than I had ever thought. (By the way, if you haven’t watched game on ESPN in a while, the ESPN commercials are worth seeing. Very FUNNY.)

That’s my recap—for me, for my family. I can’t help but wonder how this will all change over the years. Will I have to urge my children to stay home on Wednesday night to have “S’more night” with the neighbors? Will they chime in with their excited Dad as he pumps them up about Thanksgiving weekend? Will they take their “thankful cards” seriously? Will Julia enjoy helping me decorate the house for Jesus’s birthday or look for something else to do? Will they have taken any truth from Mortimer’s Christmas Manger—believing with their whole heart that their God delights in giving good gifts to His children? Will they grow up to be Georgia Bulldog fans? I am SO kidding. I can think of one thing, no, two, that I know won’t change. I will still be trying to carry on these family times and traditions for us and Brighton will still be asking me what's for lunch.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I can only hope they won't be brainwashed into dog fans. The picture in those t-shirts is more than an uncle can stand. Do something Jeff
TJ Wilson said…
What a fun recap - sounds like an absolutely perfect holiday. My guess is that J&B will love your traditions as well as add some of their own - maybe even by accident. :)
Anonymous said…
They look like true Bulldog fans!
GO DAWGS!
Krista Sanders said…
Who is the UGA fan that stopped by??? You know how to spell 'dawgs".....
Elaine said…
Well, I'm clueless as to the difference b/w Georgia and Georgia State, but it seems important. I'll be for whoever you're for since you're my friend.

As to your weekend, it sounds wonderful! I have that book too, but we haven't read it yet (see my blog...you'll see why...it isn't the right day yet:
http://elainegl.typepad.com/

I love the thankful card idea. I heard one the other day. You put up a stocking for Jesus. Then when you see someone do something "for Jesus" (like doing something nice w/o being asked, etc.), you secretly write it on the card and put it in the stocking. On Christmas day, you open the stocking and read all the gifts the family members gave Jesus. I don't know if I'll get any of it done...maybe next year!

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