I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed tonight by the upcoming holidays. I’m so wishing I could be in Virginia and see my sisters, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and friends…I am missing my Momma and Daddy, Grandparents…..just family. I would give my eye teeth to go for a walk around the lake with you,Christie….or play board games and drink hot, yummy coffee with you Rene! I would love to smell my Momma’s turkey cooking all night in the oven and waking up Thanksgiving morning smelling the delicious aroma permeating the house! I would give just about anything to have just one of my Aunt Scarlett‘s meatballs or my Aunt Lorraine‘s potato salad. I would love to have a big bowl of beans and cornbread at Momma’s kitchen table. I long to sit around the piano with my sister, Angela or my friend, Wanda and sing hymns while Daddy comes in with a little bass. I want to taste snowflakes melting on my tongue and feel the leaves crunching under my feet.
Each year I think it will get better and I will be a bit less homesick than last year…but it never works out that way. Life is so short and time isn’t always our friend…our loved ones pass on, siblings lose touch, cousins become strangers and we wake up and realize we are our parents now.
Dave‘s parents will be here on Dec. 11th, but they will be leaving before Christmas…and just like Thanksgiving…it will be Dave, Joshua and me…so, I’m trying to find new traditions that we can celebrate, as a family of three. It doesn’t make sense to cook a big ole turkey for us…but there IS a need for traditions. The traditions we started as a young family, when Momma was still here and we traveled to Virginia twice a year have faded. I know for Joshua the need to form new traditions is so important for him…but it is difficult to embrace.
I am so grateful that God put Dave and I together…to make a life. I’m looking forward to seeing where he will take us in life…will it be Israel…will it be here…I look forward to the coming years when Joshua becomes a pastor, takes a wife and starts filling our lives with grand-babies to love and kiss and hold and begin again…NEW TRADITIONS.
It is difficult to let go of the traditions your parents established and create your own…but it is needful. So, I embrace the holidays and look forward to the lessons God will teach me and the new traditions we will form. After all, God is in the details and I have entrusted all the details of my life to HIM. There is no other way.
Azalea Trees and Tea Rooms 