Thankful

 My calendar has turned to December, but here in Eastern Washington, we haven't seen snow since November 12th...so while Thanksgiving is already two weeks past, it still feels like time for a thankful blog...

 I attempted my first hand lettering on our large kitchen chalkboard before Thanksgiving and chose one of my favorite songs as well as a version of  a favorite verse, Psalm 103...the turkey is my six year old middle guys contribution...he later added a Ho, Ho, Ho word bubble...

 The cornucopia, my oldest's artistic addition...I loved that he kept me company while I worked my verse.  When he was discouraged with his not-to-his-perfect-vision-art, I got to share the story of our art teacher in elementary school who was very unencouraging, so much so that I am just recently giving myself license to learn to express myself in that way again...he asked why she was allowed to teach?  I told him it was a long grown up story...but told him hoped he would always give himself permission to create, even if it wasn't "perfect"...

 I loved hanging my new-to-me banner gleaned from a fundraiser garage sale thrown by a generous mother daughter team together, for another mother daughter team fighting cancer, together.  It will always remind me to give thanks for health when it is present in my family...

 I loved creating my faux boi green table covering the night before Thanksgiving.  I finally purchased the Martha Stewart tool at Home Depot and worked on the paper while my husband rewired our chandelier to hang above our table...

 The wood in the center of the table is a piece of barn wood from salvaged almost a decade ago from a fallen down barn down the road from my parent's home...

 It became for this meal, my centerpiece.

 I joined a retro wood trivet with vintage candles and candle holders...

 and my down the street summer garage sale find of a set of Restoration Hardware squirrel salt, pepper and butter dish.

 My sister brought chunky candles to share, among them the brown one, one of our grandma Johnson's to help light our table.  I called upon her to bring some light givers with her when it became clear that/the chandelier my husband had worked so hard to rewire was not going to be electrified for the day.

 My boys helped craft the Target turkey place cards and my mom brought take home bags for everyone making our place settings even more dear.

 One of my cherished vintage ephemera turkey's...the colors warm, just as memories of Thanksgiving's past warm us...

 We continued our thankful tree this year, with leaves traced and cut out by my boys and I and lettered with my boys and family's precious thankfulness...

 ...by my oldest guy at nine and a half...

.. my four year old's signed with his own hand and written by his Auntie...(Rudy is our dog, by the way...he made and impressive showing on the leaves this year)...

 ...and two done by my six year old (now 7)...this is his second one...I quite agree Liam, I am too, thankful for seasons...

 ...and not just the seasons that shape our activities and wardrobes...

 and time spent inside and out...

 but also those precious seasons of years...of ages of my sweet boys and family...each filling my heart with memories I will ponder later when I in a different season long past...

 because those years do fly like the leaves, lifted on the wind...I swear my boys were just babies to be held and cuddled and fed and changed day and night like their new cousin.  As a wise woman said, "the days are long, but the years are short."

 So my heart is full of many things for which I am deeply grateful for...for food and for provision to continue to feed my growing boys, especially with food allergies, I am thankful for the proliferation of products to choose from so that I can create food that all of my boys will remember warmly...

 grateful for the old and worn mixed into my life through books and memories, junking and family...

 ...profoundly grateful for a yard to clean up and a home to dwell in, to decorate to my hearts content, to keep for my family to leave from and come home to...

 thankful for this corner of my world...in it's messiness and chaos and noise...thankful for those who fill it day in and out...

 and yes, I am so thankful this is on its way again.  Because let's be real, I am a seasons girl, a December birthday girl, and it just doesn't quite feel like December until a bit of this drifts from the sky and falls on the ground to stick where I am.

"So once in every year...we throng upon a day apart

To praise the Lord and feast and song

In thankfulness of heart"...

So blessed.

Hollie Joy