If you were to ask our children something that they did growing up during THANKSGIVING, I think that at least four memories would come up pretty quickly. One I talked about last week - PLAYING GAMES. The other three:
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1. BEING WITH COUSINS! We have a large extended family and our kids have A LOT of cousins in Virginia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota, Michigan, South America... Whew! When we lived in Texas we did THANKSGIVING up BIG with their "Houston cousins". When we moved to Nebraska there were cousins all around, including the "Houston cousins" who had moved there, too. This is the first THANKSGIVING break that we will not be together. (Caleb/Krista in Missouri, Jordan/Jacqueline/Mavis/Crystal together in Illinois, Steve/Patti/Jessica together in New Jersey)... No cousins in the mix that we know of!
Here we are in Houston,Texas...
Thanksgiving of 1991...
Morgan's are on the left...
Shelly is one of Steve's seven sisters....
our family is on the right...
our kids are ages 4, 6, 8, and 10...
It was so hot in Houston,
that after playing football and jumping rope,
the kids got in the hot tub to cool off!
Steve winks as he enjoys eating with the cousins
during our Thanksgiving days of
1992.
2. THANKSGIVING BASKETS - we've spent many hours packing and delivering these care packages with different church groups that we've been a part of. These gifts were delivered to those who we were aware were in need of food and/or encouragement. Even if we don't remember all the people we shared with over the years, we do often remember the part about "Dad getting us ready to sing", "it was freezing" or "the time the cars were loaded up, ready to deliver and Mom and Dad had a little "fender bender" with the Geo Metro and the Chevy Suburban. Have any idea who won? Well, let's just say the Geo lost it's side mirror on the passenger side... so Steve stuffed a bag down in the hole in the door where the mirror had been and tied a big red Christmas ribbon there. Ahhhh, memories! Sweet family fellowship!
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3. SIX WHITE HORSES
While living in the Abilene, Texas area I became acquainted with Doc Beazley who trained many white horses at Hardin-Simmons University. For many years, they would take six of them to march in the Macy's Day parade. Sometime before or after Thanksgiving, we would make a point to go over to the stables to see Doc and the horses. The pics below include our four kids making some great memories hanging out around the "SIX WHITE HORSES".
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The famed Six White Horses began in the late 1920’s when Will “Sheriff” Watson decided to ride his white horse in front of the Hardin Simmons Cowboy Band. It was so popular that it was expanded to include all 6 flags of Texas. Students were chosen to carry the 6 flags of Texas (Spain, France, Mexico, Texas, Confederate and U.S.) and an HSU tradition was born. In 1962, Dr. W.O. “Doc” Beazley took over the helm of the 6 White Horses. Under Doc’s 36-year tenure the program grew. Doc also authored 11 books featuring the White Horses. One of my first memories as a young girl was memorizing the poem about the six white horses pulling JFK's casket. I found it online here: http://www.doncaster.on.ca/viola/sixwhitehorses.html
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1991: Here Doc Beazley is saddling up the horses while our kids anxiously wait! Each of the kids eventually get a ride...
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1992: Doc brought the 6 White Horses to our holiday parade. We're sitting on the side of the road in front of our church building as the horses march down Commercial Avenue with the Jones County, Texas courthouse in the background.
.I would love hearing some of your Thanksgiving memories, traditions, or plans. Those that you made as a child...those that you are making now with your family... or ideas that you would like to implement...
- If you don't have a blog, then just LEAVE A COMMENT below.
- If you have a blog, LEAVE A COMMENT and then feel free to link up with Mr. Linky. You're invited to copy this FAMILY FELLOWSHIP graphic and post it on your blog each Friday along with a post about your own family fellowship memories, traditions, or plans.
May GOD richly bless your THANKSGIVING FAMILY FELLOWSHIP!
3 comments:
Great post! Sorry you cannot be with all your kids. Just being with family is what makes Thanksgiving so special.
No surprise to see Steve sitting at the kids table.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! I plan to post about it at some point before Thursday.
As a child we were out of the country many Thanksgivings, or didn't have enough money to travel back to Texas for both Thanksgiving and Christmas when we were stateside. We always had church family for Thanksgiving. The gift of fellowshipping with church family for holidays is the thing that reminds me the most of childhood Thanksgivings. We always played various games with friends every year.
This year will be no different. We have two church families joining us at Thanksgiving. I can't wait to start cooking for the big day.
I love seeing the early pics of your family. Of your children, I know Crystal the best, so I can see her personality in her little face in these photos. Love it. Also the younger version of you and Steve. Reminds me that you guys have been where we are. Thanks for your example to us.
Mandy
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