Blessings and Memories

I was kind of dreading Thanksgiving this year.  It wasn't until about 2 or 3 weeks before Thanksgiving that I started to feel the dread slowly leave.  You see, Thanksgiving Day this year also happened to be the one year anniversary of my father in laws passing.  When he passed it was actually the Wed after Thanksgiving but this year the 28th actually fell on the holiday.  When I first realized this months and months ago my first reaction was "Oh crap." But I think it was actually a blessing in disguise.

Thanksgiving this year wasn't an overly sad day.  I think we were all so happy to be together and just be able to love on one another.  Joel was missed for sure and is always missed and it was definitely different without him.  But he was part of the reason we were all together. He and his wife made this awesome family and I am so selfishly blessed to have married into it.

My husband Drew has a wonderful family.  He was blessed with some of the most loving, giving and Christ-like parents.  You can tell this from their actions, their amazing children, and all of the wonderful stories that are shared.  Drew's father, Joel, was seriously one of the nicest men I have ever met. He wasn't one of those people who just talked to talk. If he had something to say there was a reason and you listened.  He was the best Poppy to our nieces and nephew.  He also was a gifted and talented singer with the best tenor voice ever.  When we would visit church you could always pick out Joel's voice in the choir.

I will leave you with these favorite memories.  When Drew and I were dating I had a dream that Joel was a mobster and was out to get me for dating his son.  It was one of the most hilarious and unrealistic dreams ever. After he heard it, Joel loved to pick on me about him being a member of the southern mafia.  Another sweet memory is during our first year of marriage Drew and I did a show in town and Joel also got cast in it.  Three Archers in one show was quite a fun time! It warms my heart to think that we all got that opportunity to be together doing something we all loved. It was a special time!

Thanksgiving day had sad moments...but Thanksgiving was also a great day. We got to love on one another, eat good food and make more memories.  So blessed and thankful!

I am grateful for God's blessings...in good times and bad.

I am thankful for many, many memories of a wonderful man.

I can't wait to share stories of this great Poppy with his grand babies that are on the way!