The one with friendsgiving

I am ever so thankful that my commute to work takes me past this beautiful beach. It sets the tone for my whole day.

~

In the little play house on the playground at work there is a shelf that was used for books at one point. The birds found it a nice place for a nest last spring and this is what's left. We kept the children out of the house when the birds were growing last year. I am hopeful that we will have more birds next year. 

Saturday was my daughter's annual Friendsgiving at her husband's family camp. 

There were around 35 of us and everyone brought food. 

This has been going on for around 10 years now and it's so much fun.

Some folks bring the same food every year because it's so delicious and it's become a tradition. 

It was pretty cold this year and we were all huddled around the big fire pit.

The camp is a long way down a dirt road and has a tidal river in the back yard.

It's a beautiful spot and such a fun tradition.

~

This is the steeple of the Old North church in Marblehead. I am so thankful to have this beautiful view 

and be able to live in the little, old, pre-revolutionary town that I grew up in. 

~

I have been to a great many funerals and baptisms and various services over the years in the Old North 

church. It's not my church but it is the church of many of the people I know. 

I suppose as one ages it only stands to reason that one has more experience with funerals and church other

church services. 

Old churches are sacred and reverent. You can almost feel the history, the centuries of welcoming new life

or laying loved ones to rest, or even just the every Sunday secret prayers that live within the walls.

I am so thankful to have reached an age where I am able to truly recognize and honor and even relate

to the hallowed history in these beautiful places.

~

My mother's last Thanksgiving before she died was in 2020. It was the COVID Thanksgiving and because she and my husband and I lived in the same house we were allowed to be together. It was just the three of us that last year. I spent almost every Thanksgiving with my mother. 

Many years before we moved into the same house I couldn't sleep and was on my phone at 1:00 in the morning a few days before Thanksgiving. I accidentally called her and quickly hung up hoping she wouldn't hear the phone. It barely rang one time. Of course she called me back immediately thinking something was wrong. I apologized. She wasn't sleeping either. We were just about to hang up when she said, "Kara, could you come over and help me put the tablecloth and the leaves in the table tomorrow?"

She was awake at 1:00 in the morning a week before Thanksgiving thinking about tablecloths! 

I remember that she made the best creamed onions and that she made them every year. She also made turnip and every year she told me that she boiled it down with a piece of bacon because that is how her mother did it. 

Now, I make the creamed onions and I make the turnip with bacon. It's a funny feeling to be the person who carries that...who carries my mother and my grandmother to the table every Thanksgiving.

I realize now that we eat those traditional foods not because we love them so much...creamed onions and turnips aren't exactly on anyone's list of favourite foods. We make them because it helps us to feel close to the people that we love at a time when we are missing them so very much. 

When I was younger Thanksgiving wasn't my favourite holiday. I thought it was so much work and that women had to do most of it. 

I understand now what an honor it is. It's like having one foot in the past and one foot in the future. 

~

HERE is some historical information on the Old North church of Marblehead if you are interested.

Friday fave fives