Jennifer June: Thanksgiving

We are a few weeks past the turkey and pumpkin pie, but the gratitude is still very fresh in my heart. Due to me being under the weather on the big day, we stayed home, just the four of us, and what could have been a reason to pout, turned out to be one of my favorite Thanksgivings yet. It was calm, and simple. There was no pressure to perfect the time honored recipes. No one really cared that we only had three simple dishes, and one dessert. The kids were just as excited as they had been in years past, when the table looked like something from Martha's kitchen. The linens that adorned our table this year were not embroidered with turkeys or pheasants. They didn't come from the Pottery Barn. Our every day dishes paired with these simple, yet beautiful table linens just seemed perfect. These were sewn by four disabled women, mothers, living in a refugee camp in the DRC, and I can think of no more appropriate table wear to remind us of all we have to be thankful for. We said grace, and our youngest, age 7, who rarely chooses to say her prayers aloud could not wait to tell God what she was thankful for. "Dear God, Thank you for my family, for shelter, for water, and for food." There you have it. Simple, yet everything.

Family, shelter, clean water, and enough food.

So thankful!

And then last week we were blessed with a blanket of glistening white snow. I woke early and peeked outside to see this! And for the next 7 days we were given this gift of being snowed in, and I felt like my heart rate just slowed a bit. I was able to unhurriedly savor the simple, precious moments that usually go by so fast. Everyday gifts like a fresh fallen snow.