A Very Very Grateful Day....

Thanksgiving....the glorious November day in Charlotte.

Here they are...the darlings. 

Dylan is wearing the shirt I made his father when he was 6.

I love generational things.  I used fun food fabric..

Three darlings, but only one princess!!!

Voila..the Thanksgiving skirt.

Uncle Bri teaching Lynsey how to count the marshmallows on the tators..
He is so clever.

See how she learns!!!  L for Lynsey...the sweet potato way.

This year...an outside event.

My girl made it all so special!!
Tradition has us using our Christmas china at Thanksgiving.

The feastly complications...:

I was thrilled to have my brother here with his wife, not so much their 16 cats in their rented van.

We had a lovely time laughing and playing traditional canasta...

My brother's leg is awful.  If he continues to be homeless, his leg will not heal.

He will eventually have to lose his leg or his life thru sepsis.

They had agreed to look at a trailer park my DIL had seen before.

It was all set up.  Then SIL refused to go.  She preferred to live in the van.

There is nothing I can do.  They have left.

I am glad they came.

My girl has made Thanksgiving a real feast.

She and her man are outstanding cooks.

I did nothing. So happy....so grateful..so proud..
My girl brought the joy with her.
She and her man continued traditions that the grands will hold dear.

Even surrounded with such love, tears came.  There is an emptiness that can never be filled.
There is a feeling of desperation and despair...
This is not a mind thing, it is a gut thing born of loss.

They have left.  I am so grateful that they came.

There is joy in the coming and sadness in the leaving.

That is the way of life.