Thanksgiving 2025 is a "Wrap".

 Oh dear friends, are you as tired as I am?  If you hosted Thanksgiving dinner at your house, I'm sure you know what I mean. But it's a happy tired, the kind that keeps you going even when your body is saying time to quit...but you don't want to miss a thing or leave something out, so you keep persevering in spite of your aches and pains. At least that's my experience...and now it's time to sit down and organized my thoughts and pictures and share it all with you before it's a dim memory!

Where to begin?  I guess I'll let the pictures do the talking for me (mostly).

Let's start with the day before Thanksgiving...this is what I did...One apple pie and two pumpkins.

And in between pie baking, we went out to lunch to meet my brother Clifford and his wife Caryl, down here in Florida from North Carolina. Caryl's extended family was gathering over at Palm Coast to celebrate Thanksgiving, but they had time on Wednesday to drive over to meet us for lunch. That was a wonderful surprise and blessing!

Our son Benton joined us as well, but sweet Rose had to work so unfortunately couldn't come.

We had a great visit, and I am so thankful for this time. We don't get to see each other very often, so I will grab every opportunity I can!

Back at home again...I got the tables set the night before. We were set for 11, but my brother in law sadly ended up not being able to come due to some health issues, but my sister Doris and the rest of her family still came anyway. We really missed having Art here, but totally understood his need to stay home and rest. My sister took home plenty of food for him to enjoy.

LOL.  Here's the family gathered around the table...Of course I caught people with their mouths full...LOL.  Sorry about that. I tried three times, but they were all funny...

I didn't get in the picture, but here's my plate:

That's my nephew Jack. He's the youngest member of the family, and such a cutie.

Actually I was trying to take a picture of this beautiful "paper" centerpiece that my sister brought as a "hostess gift".  Isn't it beautiful? It looks so real!

There's a story here...this is the lime jelled salad that my sister brought, however, somehow she stepped on the container/carrier that it was in, and this is how it looked! LOL. (It was covered with Saran Wrap so nothing got dirty, just smashed!)  It still tasted wonderful! LOL!!

 

 (kind of reminds me of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and Aunt Bethany's jello mold story. LOL   IYKYK)

Speaking of cats...Blackie got a lot of attention from everyone all afternoon.  He followed us around while we walked around the yard after dinner and basically charmed everyone with his antics and rolling in the sand to show off his belly. He was quite happy. Kind of helped soothe the empty spot of not having Sunshine there too...

While us girls walked around and visited, the guys all played "football" in the front yard, well, they tossed a football back and forth and basically had fun just being "boys".

Meanwhile, we girls took pictures of each other...Here's Rose and my niece Debbie:

My sister Doris and Debbie, (her daughter):

Debbie, Doris and me...and Blackie in the background:

And here's the whole family gathered together...

My niece was playing around with an app on her phone that created funny pictures, and here's one she did of me: LOL!

And here's my sister Doris and I wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving:

As you can tell, we had a wonderful day, filled with laughter and good food and the joy of being together.  I am so thankful for our family and also for the ability for us to still be able to get together. 

This particular Thanksgiving quote/meme popped up on my Facebook page the day before Thanksgiving. Of course it really touched my heart, when you see that sweet little orange kitty curled up there...and then the verse itself...

It reminded me that even in the difficult times and moments of life, we are taught and encouraged to "Give Thanks".  It's not always easy to do so, when we are hurting from the loss of a dear pet or missing a precious loved one who was taken away far too soon, or when we see horrific things happening in the world or our nation's capitol on the eve of Thanksgiving.  

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18   NKJV

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; 

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

These are difficult words, but when we put our faith and trust in God, we know that somehow He always causes "all things to work together for our good" (per Romans 8:28. )  We have to look at the bigger picture that God sees from His side of heaven, and realize that this world is not our final home. There's a much larger story going on that we can't see, and we have to trust God to do what He deems best for us in every circumstance.  One day, we will see Jesus face to face, and all of our questions will be answered. All of our sorrows will be replaced with eternal joy and peace. For now, we have to accept this by faith no matter how difficult it is.  I am thankful for this peace that passes all understanding that only faith in Christ can give.  I pray for those who are still searching for this peace and hope it will be found.  Amen.

And now we prepare for Christmas...stay tuned...blessings and love  to all.