Last week it was our year to enjoy our kids and grands for Thanksgiving! I start early preparing each place setting name card, and planning how to best accommodate our growing family of 18! We like to send everyone home with leftovers to enjoy for a couple days after, because what is Thanksgiving without the leftovers right?!!! :)

The place settings came from a combination of places. I will quite often plan a year in advance and take advantage of after Thanksgiving sales.

The silk velvet pumpkins from my favorite, woman owned, “Hot Squash” pumpkin company are one of my faves - https://hotskwash.com/. I ordered these last year because at the sale price, they are not worth the time, effort, and money to make on my own. These were actually made to hold a place card in the small slit in the cork stem. Their normal pumpkins have lovely real pumpkin stems. Be sure to check them out!

The felt leaves came from my favorite local company in Midway, Utah. Also woman owned – “Paper and Felt” https://paperandfeltmidway.com.

A friend ordered the wooden pinecones from another local company “My Minds Eye” – https://mymindseye.com. I designed and cut the names from vinyl on my Cameo Silhouette machine. That same friend gave me the wax sticks that fit in a small size glue gun to make the wax seals with. I used a wax seal stamp I already had, I think I bought it on Amazon. The foliage came from my stash of faux flowers in my basement. I also watch for that kind of stuff to go on sale and buy it when it’s on clearance.

I wasn’t sure how I would combine all these lovely things together to make what I came up with, but I do love the end result.

I hot glued everything together so that when it was time to go home, each one could easily be picked up and taken home without falling apart.

I make each person a personalized name place setting arrangement of some sort each time we host Thanksgiving. This is my love language.

Thanksgiving is a tender time for me personally. We lost our grandson almost seven years ago, and I miss him dearly. He holds a special place in my heart, and I always honor him at our special Thanksgiving dinners. Ron and I also give his parents a birthday and Christmas card with Kai’s name on it with money for them to go and get a treat as a family, to celebrate our Heavenly boy. We have three adult children who are all married, and each one of us have now lost a baby through miscarriage or at birth.

I place three angels in addition to Kai’s, near his place setting in honor of our other three babies lost through miscarriage. I believe we will see them all again someday, and that gives me hope and joy, which in turn fills my soul with LIGHT! The holidays are a time to hold those we love near, and let them know of our love and gratitude for the role they play in our lives.

I am grateful each time we join together and LOVE the LIGHT it brings. This year Ron’s mom is in a care center due to a broken vertebrae in her back. She will be 97 in February, and has been a widow for almost 31 years now. Because of this, we were not able to go and decorate her home for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving for the first time in 30 years. This has been a family tradition that I look forward to each year.

My daughter Steph and I did go to her home and gather some of her decorations though, and took them to the care center and put them up in her room. It was our hope that if she couldn’t be home for the holidays, that we would be able to bring a little bit of her home to her in the care center. Home isn’t a place, home is where your people are. And sometimes that doesn’t always look the same from year to year. Eileen has spent her life serving others. She is an angel here on earth.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/light-the-world

I posted last week about the “Light The World” initiative my church does each year to help those in need. “The theme this year is ‘Be Someone’s Angel.’ As we begin this sacred holiday season, let’s all look for ways each day to serve someone by asking ourselves the question, How can I be an angel to those around me this December? Each day of December, ask who needs His light today. Then look for opportunities to be that person’s angel.” ~ Church News

A couple years ago, one of my dear friends from Jr. High and High School lost her mom. Christa is one of the few friends I keep in contact with from so long ago. That first Christmas after losing her mom, she gifted me two delicate glass angel figurines with a note explaining a new tradition she was starting in honor of her incredible mom. Christa told me she planned to give one special person in her life an angel each Christmas. I call these my “Peggy and Christa Angels” because that’s what Christa and her mom were and are here on earth. Peggy was the definition of a Christlike woman who woke up each day and served her heart out to those around her. She was a source of strength to those she served, and loved her family with every ounce of her being. Peggy loved life, loved people, but even more – she loved God! Heaven got a good one the day Peggy graduated from this life into her new life in heaven! I have no doubt Peggy smiles each day as she sees her daughter, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters walking the same path she did as they live their lives the way she taught them – all of them angels on both sides of the veil.

“Just as angels declared words of great joy at His birth, we too in our own small way, gift by gift, can be angels in the lives of others as we extend the love of Jesus Christ to people near and far, and as we proclaim a witness of the Savior of the world.” ~ Gary Stevenson

Have a great week! And don’t forget to look for the angels in your life, we are surrounded by them here on earth as well as in heaven. Find ways each day this next month to be someone’s angel!

Love Ya, Les :)

Family

Angels In Our Lives