Preparation

This time of year is all about preparation. Thanksgiving has past, and I have been contemplating the holiday rush that seems to happen this time of year. I spent a little time this year thinking about my Thanksgiving dinner preparations. Mr Wonderful and I live far, far away from any of our extended families. When the children were WAY small, we travelled home to Idaho for one Thanksgiving. It was really a hard, but wonderful trip. We drove in bad weather, we drove home in Phoenix in blizzard conditions, AND someone slit one of our car tires delaying our trip home. Those were the negatives. The positives were my mother's wonderful cooking, being home around family and friends, etc. Probably my favorite memory was my dad trying to sneak little 3 year old Kristi outside in the snow in her sister's too big snow boots to make snow angels in the yard. Oh, they had so much fun. I love remembering how my dad thought I would be mad about him taking the small one outside in the cold. He had me pegged wrong on that one, as I remembered who it was who first showed me how to make snow angels when I was about her same age. What a fun dad.

With nine children, my Thanksgiving dinners have evolved into what I like to call "opening a can". I had wonderful totally homemade Thanksgiving dinners when I was small, but when you are literally a "one woman" show, and you are me, you find maybe you end up taking a few shortcuts to a wonderful Thanksgiving meal. I was still "trying to do it all" one year, when I got a frantic call on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The ward was one Thanksgiving dinner short and could I provide a meal. I said yes, and took 3/4's of my home cooked food to the bishop to distribute. I felt a little badly, as served stove top stuffing and Pillsbury crescent rolls to the family to STRETCH the homemade goodies. Much to my surprise, the children were crying as they wanted more crescent rolls from the can, and my Jennifer proclaimed the Stove Top stuffing her very favorite EVER. I remember her looking at me and asking why we hadn't had it before? The next year, we had four rolls of crescent rolls and Stove Top stuffing, much to my children's delight. Actually, I guess I just found myself opening more and more cans each Thanksgiving. Let me tell you, it is a LOT of work even opening cans for a family of eleven and one or two guests. I like to make every one's favorite and they are not family secret recipes. Mike the Marine loves canned yams mashed with a little brown sugar and baked with marshmallows on top. Mr Wonderful loves a cherry cheese cake that is just cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice topped with a can of cherry pie filling. I serve a salad, green bean casserole, green beans, corn and peas so they have the vegetable they like. Danielle loves olives and asks why we do not have ham with the turkey....(I do a Christmas ham--no ham for Thanksgiving.) Stephanie makes a couple of pumpkin pies and puts them in prepared frozen pie shells. I am very happy for her help.

I think you can see--We don't have aunties and grannies showing up with their favorite recipes. It is Mom O'Nine and her stash of canned goods! Mr Wonderful has everyone say one thing they are thankful for. What blessings our family has. We are healthy, the kids are healthy, the grandchildren are healthy. We live in a free country, our Marine is safe. We have a lot to be thankful for.

That all leads us to Christmas preparations. Some years I do better than other years. My kids are mostly grown now and some are parents creating their own Christmas traditions and carrying on with some of the old ones. What I find is that the holidays come and go whether you are prepared or not. Sometimes things we plan happen, and sometimes they don't. Some traditions survive, and others don't. I like to listen to the spirit this time of year for opportunities to make the holidays special for someone else. This year, with three dear friends with stage four cancer, my heart has been a bit heavy. Illness and death are a big part of life, but you don't really worry about them unless you are sick and dying, then that is about all you can think about. I was blessed to be able to take part of a dinner over to one of my friends who has been given a week or so to live. Thank goodness I met another friend and we went took the dinner together. I found my dear friend, albeit in a weakened state, but we smiled at each other as our eyes met. I sat on the floor so I could be close to her, as one sweet grandson was in a chair and my other friend was on the sofa. Her sisters leaned over the sofa, and the dear one was surrounded by family and friends. I tried to put myself in her place. Everyone in the room with her exception was "living" and she was on the lone journey headed to death....and even though we were all there.....We were ever mindful that she was really alone in her journey. All summer she has told me she has thought she has seen someone--that she was having hallucinations. I could see her eyes leaving my face and looking off into the distance. I prefer to think that family is gathering from the other side, and it is they she is seeing. As we were leaving, her dear husband of many, many years came home. His eyes were brimming with tears and he gruffly informed us that he had been buying funeral plots and rolled his eyes. Preparations are going on.

In my prayers, I try to be mindful of those that this wonderful holiday season is not all that wonderful. I am indeed thankful for our Savior, for his love of us, and his infinite gift of atonement for each one of us. I am thankful for the comfort he extends to each of us. He is indeed the reason for the season. In this time of uncertainty and trials, may we strive to be prepared and look to the One who is the source of all hope.