Anticipating Thanksgiving, 2007

At some point last summer, Julie posted a "Pay It Forward" on her blog. I joined, and was the fortunate receipient of a wonderful hand-crafted case for a rotary cutter or a pair of glasses. Since my glasses are always either on my face or on my nightstand, I now have the best-dressed rotary cutter in town. As a participant in Julie's challenge, my obligation was to post a similar challenge, with a promise to deliver within a year. My Dancing Ladies blocks have been finished for several weeks now, and today they will at last go in the mail to Deb, Jan, and Debbie who were the first to comment when my challenge was posted.

The timing seemed appropriate. Thanksgiving Week. I'd been thinking over the past few days how glad I am that I became a blogger and how thankful I am for the wonderful relationships that have come from the world of blogging.

My Dancing Ladies were drawn by my dear husband, and are based on some cave drawings that were discovered someplace in Spain. Somehow they have become my emblem, my logo, my symbol. I've used them to recognize friendships, and I've used them to illustrate the verse from Psalm 30: "You have changed my mourning into dancing." And today I'm delighted to share them with three dear blogging friends!

This blog is likely to get a little bit quiet as my house gets a little bit noisy in the next few days! Thanksgiving, of course, is the very best holiday. It is about many good things, and one of them is family. We are blessed that all six of our kids (the three we birthed and the three we acquired) will be with us for most of the weekend. This only happens every two years, and we savor every minute.

As pictured to the left, Joe has the outside ready to welcome our guests. I did much of my grocery shopping on Sunday. Tonight I want to start the preparations, and tomorrow afternoon pick up my turkey. We'll have our crowd on Thursday for dinner, plus Amy's dad; after dinner we'll be joined by Bonnie and her entire family for dessert. Then on Saturday Joe's brother and his boys will come to spend much of the day. It's about family, all right. And we are very, very thankful for ours.