It's that time of the year! Only ten days until Thanksgiving, so it's time to actually put together a menu. And now this drafting of the menu has been begun and rebegun and finally dragged to four days before the big day. Which is pretty typical of life right now. We are hobbling.
This will be the sixteenth Thanksgiving since we've been married, and I've loved hosting a gathering each year. I cannot believed I deigned to hostess thanksgiving when I was 22, but I did. I wonder at all the family - and friends - who came over those first years. But then again I don't. I mean - why not go to the idealists house with dust bunnies in the corner and fancy china on the table. It has to at least be amusing.
We love having thanksgiving. We love going all out - beyond all that is reasonable - and without any distractions. Christmas is the best, but it is so big. Thanksgiving is about one thing - relishing in that over which we get to give thanks to God.
I have new china I bought for a steal from a family friend this summer. A whole big set with lots of pieces. I have fancy linen, embroidered napkins I brought home from Greve, Italy, the most charming town in the history of christendom, nestled in the midst of Tuscany. I have a brand new niece who is coming to sit in the infant seat in the corner. Despite the hobbling, we are going all out. Because we worship a God who went all out. We bear his image, and we get to create and celebrate and give thanks.
Also connected to our excess is that Thanksgiving is very much my service to the extended family, at least in the celebratory category. At Christmas, I have too many children to be of much use to the rest of the world. I'm not big on birthdays. This is my yearly magnum opus. And so, it is excessive by design.
