When did it start? When did we first begin sharing Thanksgivings with Joe and Nancy? Joe and I met 30 years ago at a party at Island Design in Langley, WA. We liked one another immediately and stayed in touch over all these years. A year after Joe and I met, I married Ed. A few years later Joe married Nancy. On Joe and Nancy's wedding day we were introduced to Nancy for the first time. Ed's first words to Nancy were, "I'll never forget this day!" Nancy, taken aback at this strange man's forward comment, was at a lack for words. Ed then announced, "Today is my birthday."
As Joe and I connected all those years ago, so did Ed, Nancy, Joe and I connect as couples. To make it even more special, with Joe's age falling between Brad's age and mine, he became a hiking buddy and a good friend with Brad as well. A family was born, a Thanksgiving family, of very special friendships and connections.
We had our 2013 Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, five days early, on Lopez. It took a number of years to figure it out, but we finally came up with the plan to "beat" the holiday traffic and long ferry lines. It was an aha moment when we said to one another, "Let's celebrate on a day other than the actual holiday." Now we routinely celebrate Thanksgiving on the weekend before Thanksgiving.
As Joe and I connected all those years ago, so did Ed, Nancy, Joe and I connect as couples. To make it even more special, with Joe's age falling between Brad's age and mine, he became a hiking buddy and a good friend with Brad as well. A family was born, a Thanksgiving family, of very special friendships and connections.
We had our 2013 Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, five days early, on Lopez. It took a number of years to figure it out, but we finally came up with the plan to "beat" the holiday traffic and long ferry lines. It was an aha moment when we said to one another, "Let's celebrate on a day other than the actual holiday." Now we routinely celebrate Thanksgiving on the weekend before Thanksgiving.
It is a wonderful solution. We casually and comfortably gather one year on Lopez Island and the next on Whidbey Island to enjoy our thanksgiving-of-life with wonderfully good, long time friends, together with their Lopez Island friends when on Lopez and our Whidbey Island friends when on Whidbey.
So, as the rest of you rush around this week preparing for Thanksgiving, we are resting, exercising and enjoying the sweet peace of an early holiday celebration. Here are a few photographs of this year's gathering on Lopez Island. Unfortunately these photographs do not include all the people present, especially the two wonderful children (perhaps they were moving too fast for the camera lens), despite the delight they brought to the gathering.
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| Yessi & Brad. We were blessed this year to share Thanksgiving with Yessi, her first ever Thanksgiving celebration. |
As after each year's Thanksgiving festivities, we end the weekend grateful for cherished friends and delicious food, plus outstanding conversations and a wonderful walk or two in the woods.
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy,
they are the charming gardeners who make our
souls blossom.
Marcel Proust
Happy Thanksgiving!
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/grateful.html#9PpjAUv52ZHSIFw6.99
Marcel Proust
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/grateful.html#9PpjAUv52ZHSIFw6.99
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