Sunday, November 30, 2008

smelling the rose petals

The day before Thanksgiving Holly brought Hannah and Summer over to my house for a visit and to help prepare for dinner the next day. Hannah has always been my sous chef when we prepare meals for the family and this day was no different. She helped chop celery and onion for the stuffing, she scrubbed sweet potatoes to bake for the pies, she peeled boiled eggs and mixed the yolks and other ingredients for the deviled eggs and pitched in wherever needed. Since Hannah and I are both a bit messy when we cook, Holly was a trooper and cleaned up behind the two messy girls. Little Summer ate potato chips, watched Spongebob and occasionally wandered into the kitchen for a hug or more snacks.

Our friend Cody stopped by to visit. He's a rambunctious 12 year old who livened us up. A little later in the afternoon, we took a break from the cooking and went on a golf cart ride around our neighborhood where we enjoyed the cool, sunshiney day and the breeze blowing through our hair. We had the excitment of a few dogs barking and chasing after us and a quickly weakening battery on the cart, but we got home safely and because the battery held up, we didn't have to walk home. It was an absolutely lovely time.

Thanksgiving day, my grandson Sid was moseying around the yard waiting for Summer to get here and he found a unique way to keep himself busy. He came into the house holding the front of his shirt up in his arms. The tail of his shirt was full of dark pink rose petals from my front yard. He liked them and decided to pick them and bring them in to me. I was a little taken aback when I saw them but when I saw how excited he was to bring them to me, I was touched. We didn't want them to go to waste so we fixed them for decorations for the dinner tables. I gathered up some small cut glass bowls and filled them with water, then Sid and I sprinkled the petals on top of the water where they floated beautifully. We set seven little bowls of floating dark pink rose petals around on the tables where they added a graceful accent to our dinner. They were very pretty and Sid was proud of his good work.

Our family showed up on time for dinner and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. It was a good day with many things to be thankful for. I am thankful for the prep day with my daughter and girls and I'm thankful for Sid's rose petal gathering. I am thankful for a delicious meal that day. I am thankful for Amy and Holly jumping in to get the final details done with dinner and all their help cleaning up afterwards. Most of all, I am thankful for peace and contentment in our home during our Thanksgiving gathering.

We know the Lord blesses us in big ways; with salvation, with protection, with heaven, but He also blesses us in small ways that are precious to my heart--lavish time spent with grandchildren, tasks successfully completed, a peaceful spirit, and time to smell the rose petals.

Thank you, Father. If you never did another good thing for me, I would still be a most blessed woman. I love you.

Suz

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