Well, this week promises to be extremely busy for all of us. I haven't seen my brother and his family for two years as they live in North Carolina and WON'T fly anywhere. We haven't been able to get up there to see them either. I will be doing most of the cooking I guess, since my mom is needing knee replacement surgery and she's trying to put it off until after Christmas. So my sister and I will have her sitting at the kitchen table cutting up the fruit salad.

I think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year! You get to see all your family like at Christmas, but you don't have the added pressure of shopping for gifts. I love giving gifts, but I love seeing my family more than anything. I love the Christmases that we've given home-made gifts - those mean more to me. All this running around like crazy trying to "just find something" to give so you'll have a gift for everyone drives me nuts. Christmas shopping has gotten totally out of hand. I remember the days when I was little when my parents centered Christmas around the blessed birth of our saviour, Jesus, and how magical it was to sit around the Christmas tree as my dad or mom read the Christmas story.

Here's a Thanksgiving idea that you might enjoy doing with your family---

For Thanksgiving a few years ago, I had my whole family at my house. I bought some parchment paper and a gold caligraphy pen and some gold ribbon, and cut out some little scroll size pieces of the paper. Then I wrote a special thanksgiving for each person in my family and why they were special to me. I rolled them up and tied the gold ribbon around each one and placed on them beside each person's plate. Everybody kept wondering all during lunch what was on the scrolls, but we had to wait until after everyone was through eating. Then I had each person in turn open and read their scroll out loud to the family. It was wonderful and I got to express my thanks and love for each and every family member and what made them so unique and special to me and my life. There were lots of laughs, lots of tears, but mostly lots of hugs and kisses - and I think this was the most special Thanksgiving we've ever had as as family. We don't express our love for one another as often as we should.

I hope anyone who reads my posts has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I'm going to be very busy this week, so I don't know if I'll get back to you or not. Planning on taking off work for the rest of the week to cook and clean probably like the rest of you. It is nice that most of my family lives here and my husband's parents and my parents are all still alive and in good health (what a blessing) so we get to stay home for all our holidays! Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Vickie