Grateful.

Thanksgivings can sometimes run together.  But ever since I spent a couple Thanksgivings at places other than South Georgia, the traditions of our family's Thanksgiving have seemed to become more cherished.  Thanksgiving has always been a time when we load up on amazing food.  This year we moved our location to Buck Road instead of East Lee Street so that we could break in Morning Glory, the new cabin that has just been finished on the Pruitt Place Farm.  At this new venue, some of our old traditions hung around and snuck out of the corner and into those new walls. 

There is something stable and grounding about family traditions.  Noel Piper says in her book about traditions that"Only God can bequeath God to our children. But he uses means. He uses God-centered traditions and Bible-saturated family patterns and grace-laden heirlooms."  Maybe a tradition gives a glimpse of God's unchanging character.  Or maybe it's not even the tradition but the people you share the tradition with.  And maybe you didn't even start the tradition out with the intent of being a tradition but over time it turned into one and you look back and know that Grace had a lot to do with stringing those moments together. 


Thankfully, the tradition of a team-effort to deliver amazing food hung around for this Thanksgiving.  Despite the obstacles of new appliances and forgotten ingredients, it all came together for a great meal and as usual no one went hungry.  It is fun for me to see my Mom shine in the kitchen.  She totally serves there without even knowing it.  Everyone jumps in to do their part, but she has a way of taking the lead in the kitchen at Thanksgiving.  It can be a tough job, but someone has to do it...and Mom you do it so well.  

I'm glad that games also hung around at Morning Glory.  The first game I really remember playing with my family was Pig at Hilton Head.  Typically, a new game rises to the top each year...but Pig is one of the classics.  This year it was the Name Game.  We even had Granny laughing pretty hard.  Love it.

Finally, a tradition that stuck at Morning Glory is porch sitting.  Everyone I shared Thanksgiving with has pieces of their life that aren't perfect.  Maybe right now those pieces aren't being told the way they would have picked to tell it.  Those pieces that are still in the works seem to not be so suffocating sitting on the porch.  The porch is a safe place where you don't have to talk about those pieces of life that are still in the process of being redeemed or you can talk about them.  It is a place to laugh.  To laugh at yourself and of course to laugh at Uncle Tommy.  That is a given.

These are simple traditions.  But sharing them together makes them special.  Looking back on them makes them special and makes me grateful.  Sometimes when you are living them it is tricky because we are still learning to love the people we say we love.  But hopefully we are getting better at it.  It seems like sometimes we take steps backwards and then take giant leaps forward.  I am thankful that we can have traditions that make life seem right even when it is not completely right.  Hopefully, our small, simple traditions will continue to point our gaze to the Ultimate Tradition Maker and to His unchanging love and faithfulness.