The holidays begin...

Thanksgiving was wonderful here at my home. We had 11, a nice number.
All day long I had shadows of days past with my parents. Daddy and I cleaning the family silver, me ironing the linen napkins ( which Heather did this year for us), Mom having me chop the fixings for the stuffing, pealing the potatoes, then making mashed potatoes, her making yummy gravy. The house smelled so good , there were always 3 kinds of pies cooling.
The she would get the linen table clothe out good china out and use the silver that Daddy and I had shinned.The table always looked something out of a magazine.
Everyone would sit down and wait for Daddy to begin. Before Daddy carved the bird he would start with what he was most thankful for, he would look at my mother and me. Then say he was most thankful for us. After that each person would follow suite.
Cleaning up was always the women in the family's job. The men would go in the living room and have a cocktail or beer.
The alarm would go off the next morning at 3:30 am. Mom and I would jump in her Mustang, and hit the Black Friday sales! When we were done we would go to Dick Church's restaurant for brunch...just she and I.
This Black Friday Heather and I talked about how hard it is for her to hear from all her friends about spending the day with their grandparents. I didn't have access to my grandparents very much. Until recently Heather had 3 sets of grandparents all who spoiled her with love and lots of hugs. Now the only one left is a grandmother in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's.
She and I cried and hugged,what more could we do?
We did not head out until 1 in the afternoon then the 3 of us joined the crazy people. It was fun but for me the shadows kept coming to my mind!
Once again my heart is broken. Thank God for my faith in the Lord, the many family and friends who let me know I am loved.
I hope all of you in Blogland are able to find some peace this Holiday season.