Happy Thanksgiving

As I sit here this Thanksgiving morning, with the Christmas tree sparkling in the corner, I'm thinking of all Thanksgivings from my childhood, as a newly wed, as a mother and now as a grandmother.  What precious memories of cousins running through Grandma's and Papa's house, sitting down to dinner with my in laws, feeding my babies mashed potatoes with a little taste of gravy mixed in and watching as they experience real food, and now I'm thinking about my grandkids bursting through my door and screaming "MIMI!"

I was talking to my son one day about how much fun it was as a kid to go to my papa's house and all my cousins would be there.  I don't remember what the adults did, but I know that the cousins had a blast running through the yard to the woods and then through the fields, usually ending up in the loft of Papa's barn where our imagination took us to far away places.  I was telling him how sad that that part of my life was over.  As we were standing at the window looking out at our yard, fields and woods and what he said to me next made me put a whole new perspective on the memories of times past.  He said, "Mom, now THIS is Papa's place." 

He made me realize that although there was some sadness in memories of times past, I was passing on to my children and grandchildren the fun times, times of sitting around the table laughing, kids running through the house, the yard and lots of love being passed around. 

So, this morning, I'm going to think on all those Thanksgivings past, but not with sadness and heartache, but with a new direction of making Mimi's house the fun place to go.  The place where memories are made.  The place, when I'm gone, that they tell their children and grandchildren of all the happiness made at Mimi's and Poppy's house.