Sunday, November 30, 2008

The Thanksgiving Time

Bernie and I flew to San Diego for Thanksgiving.
We got to the airport at seven in the evening on Wednesday, the busiest travel day of the year.

The place was practically empty. This is the flight lounge...usually jammed packed with travelers. We didn't even need to wait in line to check in.

It was very weird.

We asked various airport employees about it, and they all said that in their twenty or thirty years of work they too had never seen anything like it either. The economy just is too rough for people to fly right now I guess.

After we landed in San Diego, we headed to my parent's house in La Jolla. It was raining when we arrived late Wednesday night, and it rained quite heavily all that night.
The next day the paper reported it was the most rain that San Diego had received in a twenty four hour period in 99 years, beating the rain total that was posted in 1909.

By Thanksgiving Day afternoon the skies were clear again.
(The palm trees that were reflected in the puddle above, properly viewed in the sky above.)

A quick game while waiting for the turkey to be done....
My mom always sets a beautiful table.

We are a small family...my Dad....

our daughter Laura....(she is living in San Diego now, and is working as a Hospice coordinator nurse.)

Bernie.
I didn't manage to get a good picture of my mom or me, but we were just six around the table.
Jeff was able to fly in from Salt Lake as well.
I can remember Thanksgivings with the same china on this same table, but there was eleven of us around it...grandparents, cousins and so forth.
This Thanksgiving was a precious grouping to me.
A colorful traditional horn of plenty centerpiece.

The little pilgrim candles that appear on the table each year.

And the turkey salt and pepper shakers.
My mom has collected several themed salt and pepper sets. Rabbits for Easter for instance.

It is a running joke now: One year Jeff sat down for some holiday meal, and grabbed a ceramic table decoration, and began to shake it over his food.

As it turned out, it wasn't a salt or pepper shaker.


The joke is now to grab just about anything and give it a shake....it just might be this holiday's salt shaker!
(And no, the salt doesn't EVER come out the turkey's butt....it comes out of the TOP of the turkey....Smart Alec.)

I got in a few neighborhood walks, and lots of chats with my Mom and Dad, and with Laura. We stopped by Bernie's folks as well for a catch up there too.
Visits home always go so fast.
We were back in Salt Lake on Sunday.
Today we fly again, this time to Houston to sign over our house there, and oversee the loading of our household.
We'll be back in Salt Lake again on Friday.
I'll post if I have a chance...
Otherwise, we'll catch up again next weekend.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a nice, quiet Thanksgiving Day...although I'll bet it was filled with lots of laughter (especially over the funny little traditions like the s&p shakers)!

I'm praying that all goes well for you this week and that the transition is smooth!

Anonymous said...

I'll be thinking of you this week - it'll be a busy and emotional one I'm sure. I hope all goes smooth. Looking forward to hearing all about it when you get back. Lori T

Lovella ♥ said...

Jill, I so appreciated being able to peek into your family Thanksgiving . . .the table, the decorations, the folks, and the view out the window.
I'll be praying for you this week as you undertake the closing of your Houston House. I typed home. . .but then I remembered that it is a house. . .your home is where you and your loved ones get together.
All the best.

Anonymous said...

Thank you both for sharing your short time here in S.D. with us too. We were glad to be able to have dinner together at Mario's together and a good visit. We will be thinking of you this week and hoping everything in Houston goes smoothly and your plans in S.L.C. and your future new home all work out as to your advantage. We love you both, mom and dad S.

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

Those pilgrim candles bring back fond memories of Thanksgiving at my grandmother's house when I was a kid...I hadn't thought about those candles in ages.

L&D said...

Smiling at the shaker thing. That's so something I would do.....and never live down. Glad you had a great trip.