Thanksgiving survival

It seems Thanksgiving is a time when our family gets together every other year, for the kids and then of course, everyone else, to get sick. We had such fun but some of the parents had to take time out to be with their kids and then themselves to take care of the "sickies". Just doesn't seem fair. It got me to thinking about when our kids were young and what all happened.

First, we didn't have to travel for several hours or many hours to get to "Grandma's house". We lived within 8 miles of both Grandparent's homes. Yes, I can see our lives where much simpler than our children and their families are now. One daughter and her hubby and kids live over 17 hours from here. Another daughter, hubby and kids live five hours from here. The next daughter, hubby and kids live about an hour from here. Yes, our lives were much "easier" for sure.

Just so everyone knows I/We really appreciate the sacrifices these families made to come for the holiday. It was fun listening to the girls chat back and forth to each other and to watch the cousins playing and chatting with one another.

Glen and I have the opportunity to visit with our children and their families usually once or twice a year but the siblings don't. They do talk on the phone a lot to each other but to be together face to face is such a rare occasion.

To catch everyone up on the dinner in our garage, it turned out great. The food tasted good, I can say that because I didn't fix it all. The tables turned out looking pretty good and it wasn't even cold. Great Grandma got to sit right in front of the heater to be sure she didn't get cold. For the rest of us, it was very pleasant.

Life today is so much different than when I was a child or our children were young. We lived close to family so we were able to attend many different celebrations. We got to see our siblings and families often. I really appreciate the effort that went into preparing for the holiday both food wise and travel wise. Thank you to our children, their spouses and grandchildren. Remember you are all loved and to Nicole we missed you so much. I guess this is what we have to expect will happen more often as our grandchildren grow older and test their wings getting ready to leave their nests.