Memories
The turkey was great, and so was the ham. The dressing was my mother’s recipe and turned out great. Green beans, corn casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, holiday salad and homemade rolls completed the menu. The desserts were plentiful — pecan pie, pumpkin pie with whipped topping, triple chocolate fudge brownie cake with chocolate ganache, and snickerdoodle cookies. We had a feast and we all enjoyed it!
But there were some things we enjoyed more than this great meal. Let me just list a few of the things that were better:
- Working in the kitchen with my daughter, daughter-in-law, and granddaughters. We work well together and have lots of fun remembering mistakes we have made as we have prepared this meal in the past.
- Watching my youngest granddaughter as I taught her how to prepare the turkey to bake. We laughed so hard as I pulled the neck and giblets out of the inside of the turkey. She exclaimed, “What is that????” When I told her we were going to boil these pieces to make broth, she couldn’t believe it. We laughed and laughed about that for the rest of the day.
- We sang together as a family. This is one of my favorite parts of us being together. We get out the basket of songbooks and sing some of the old favorite hymns. Then we sing some of the newer devotional songs and sometimes without a book, we sing some songs we have learned which our family loves. It is such a joy to see our grandchildren continuing this tradition.
- We played games together. Bananagrams was lots of fun. The kids had fun laughing at Grampy and me as we struggled to keep up with this fast moving game. We didn’t care because we were all laughing and having a good time. Then we switched to Bible Trivia and found out how hard it is to remember facts from the Bible when you are put on the spot. I told them we should have played with the cards for children!
- We watched a Christmas movie – “Elf” – and laughed together. I really should have gone to bed because I was so tired, but I wouldn’t have missed this time of just laughing at something so silly for a few extra hours of sleep.
- We relaxed and talked together. It is wonderful to share conversation with your grown children and with your grandchildren. You learn how they are feeling and what is important to them.
- We worshiped together on Sunday. What a blessing it is to worship God together as a family. To be in His presence with your physical family who are part of your spiritual family, is a taste of Heaven.
I hope your family gatherings were as wonderful as ours. If not, work toward that goal of making memories with those you love the most on this earth. You will be blessed.
AUTHOR: Donna Faughn
