Would you like to contribute your own expression of appreciation or maybe a Thanksgiving recollection? They will be part of a special blog post I plan to publish on Thanksgiving Day.
You are invited to offer a few sentences or a list of gratitudes. Or, you might like to share a favorite Thanksgiving memory or a treasured family tradition. (Below you’ll find a few of my reflections from Thanksgivings past.)
By 1:00 p.m., Eastern U.S., Tuesday, November 26th, please send me an email with “Thanksgiving” in the subject line. You are welcome to send a photograph as well as your text. Email to denaclayton1111@gmail.com.
You might enjoy seeing readers’ offerings in 2 other posts: Mothers Day Messages from Readers: Love Revealed and Remembering Dads for Fathers Day: Love Revealed.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
I want to share a glimpse with you of Thanksgivings with my precious Aunt Kiddy. She hosted Thanksgiving dinners for our family in her welcoming home outside Baltimore, Maryland, well beyond forty years. Even though she has been gone sixteen Novembers, the memories remain delightfully bright.
Greeting each of us at the door with a big embrace, Aunt Kiddy’s loving warmth would have been enough to carry the day each Thanksgiving. She was a woman whose personal flair could be seen in her stylish clothing and in the décor of her home. It seemed to me that even her home hugged me each time I entered. As well, I felt a deep sense of belonging as we sat in her cozy dining room with its Early American furnishings, the ecru lacy cloth covering the oval table, and the sun’s rays illuminating the jewel toned glass vases spaced across the midline of the double windows. Aromas and tastes of succulent foods were only part of the experience. Our family’s conversation, laughter, and reminiscences mingled with the crackling and shimmering flames from a fireplace in the adjacent living room.
Reading over the last two paragraphs, I realize it sounds like a Norman Rockwell image on the cover of a Saturday Evening Post in the 1960’s. Perhaps my selective memory is weeding out squabbles and resentments. All I know is the joy I feel in this moment from revisiting the memories while preparing this post. I give thanks for the touchstone each of those Thanksgiving celebrations was in my life.
As well, I send prayers of gratitude for the abiding love from Aunt Kiddy and Uncle Mace.
(Photo descriptions: 1st – Kiddy & Mace, 1938, near Niagra Falls, both aged 37; 2nd – Kiddy & Mace, July, 1972, age 63; 3rd – Kiddy’s 85th birthday, November, 1993.)
Blissings, Dena
Thank you for being here. If this is one of your first visits, please consider subscribing for free email or RSS updates.
If you liked this article, please share its gifts with your friends & family.
[…] Nearly every Thanksgiving for about forty years, our family gathered in the home of Aunt Kiddy. She died in 1997, then my mother and husband died within the next five years. We had gone from a […]
[…] Inviting Your Expressions for a Thanksgiving Post ~ (This includes tender remembrances of so many Thanksgivings with beloved Aunt Kiddy & Uncle Mace) […]