Giving thanks

We're still a few days off from the holiday, of course. But we'd planned to be out of town for the weekend, which didn't work out as we didn't end up with a dinner invitation from among my wife's siblings and my cousins. That hurts a little, but life happens. We realized later that, with our son-in-law scheduled for a serious surgery today, that it would be a good idea to try to have dinner yesterday instead. As it turned out, that made for a very full table, even with the ones who weren't available, with 13 people gathered around it.

We had prayed and were dishing up dinner when my middle daughter asked where the gravy was. Well, in the rush of getting the meat carved I'd forgotten to make it. So I hopped up and and whipped it up - it only takes a couple minutes - and brought it to the table in a creamer. I handed it to my son-in-law and had returned to the kitchen when I heard the sound of shattering china and a commotion. It seems that my son-in-law and daughter had missed the hand-off, and the hot-off-the-stove gravy ended up mostly on our daughter and the floor. While some of the family tended to our daughter, others of us hastened to shoo the dog away and clean up the spilled gravy before he could ingest any shards of china.

She ended up with first degree burns on her arm, leg, and torso. As miserable as it was for her, we are grateful that it wasn't worse, as it certainly could have been in those circumstances.

Aside from that, it was a very nice family day. The house was full of children and fun and good food and people we love. And as the evening drew down, my wife and I each got a hug from - well, it's a little hard to explain, because they're not our grandchildren officially yet, but we're increasingly part of one big blended family.

Oh, and we're replacing an alternator on the car that we'd just had worked on last week. (Brakes and a sensor last week.) Older car issues. Still, it's good that we have the means.

Also, this coming weekend is the 40th anniversary. If you know me well, you aren't asking "of what?" but in case you don't know, here is a little more (without any gross details of my life thrown in).

Despite all of its challenges of many sorts, my life is also filled with many blessings for which I am giving thanks.