Thankful

​​You know those dishes.
The ones that wait patiently all year long for their time to shine?
Those dishes which have the main purpose of holding the turkey and dressing?
This is the week they get to shine.
We have those special place settings in the Jackson home. For many years it was just a dream of Benny’s to have a set of Spode Woodland dinnerware.
As dreams have a way of doing, his became a reality.
I had been dreaming, too; not of dishes though. My heart loved the mountains and I had been dreaming of a vacation home in Ruidoso where we eloped so many years ago.
My dream manifested before his, and thus the great marriage of a mountain home and Woodland dishes consummated.
And then life happened. Choices happened. Moves happened.
The decision to pack up our lives, sell our vacation home, and move two thousand miles away...happened.
And the dishes waited. They weren’t the ones we grabbed anymore for a sandwich, or a plate of spaghetti. They didn’t rest on the table for a casual dinner with friends. They didn’t hear the laughter from children or gossip from neighbors anymore. They could hear voices through the door of the cabinet they slept in, but the words were muffled and the space was dark.
Another year has come and gone since they were given the task of service. This year will be like the last. Emerging from their slumber, Woodland will dress a new dining room space. It’s a smaller, more cozy place. It’s a smaller guest list, but so beloved. It’s a table of bountiful blessings, cherished family and forever friends.
We will dine, we will laugh, we will unbutton our pants if we forgot to wear the stretchy ones.
We will give thanks.
Paula Estelle Jackson 11-25-2019 written on what would have been my mothers birthday. Photos from 2018