COMBINE THE LOVE...

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. Mine... you can read about it here Change In a Bottle  But just spending time with Family is what it's all about. And what this memory is about. My Grandparents have been gone for quite some time but I think about them often. Especially this time of year. It was something special to go there at Thanksgiving because.....

 
They had ThanksgivingChristmas! Yes, two holidays combined and oh how fun it was. We would go there on Thanksgiving day loaded with gifts!  They decided since their children and families lived at least a 2 hour drive away, they'd have us all come for dinner and also celebrate Christmas. Then on Christmas, they'd go visit everyone. Well, I don't think they made it to our house too many times, we were about 4 hours away, out in the middle of nowhere... So I LOVED going to their house for ThanksgivingChristmas every year.

Grandma even had her Christmas tree up and decorated.

With wrapped gifts for everyone.

And Christmas things all around. That was back in the days when most people didn't even get a tree until maybe a week before Christmas, or even Christmas Eve. So it was a novelty. I think she was use to doing things a little different when it came to Christmas though. But I'll have to take a walk away from the theme of this post to explain....

During WWII my dad was stationed on Guam Island at a Naval Base. It wasn't in the middle of the fighting, so they didn't worry as much about being bombed or an invasion. Their worry was the weather. And it so happened a Typhoon hit one day in early December. Dad was 17 when he joined the Navy and had just turned 19 the month before, so this is pretty much a 'kid' I'm talking about. And he had been given a leave to go home for Christmas that year.

The Typhoon hit the Island pretty hard and everyone was running to find cover. Dad was  doing just that when a huge rope was loosened from one of the ships it was helping anchor. If you've ever seen those ropes, they're pretty think and tough. Well, it hit him right behind his knees and sent him sprawling. The wind and rain were coming so hard and it was  impossible for him to even walk. So he scooted on his stomach into a ditch and did his best to keep his head above the water as the rain filled in.

The horrendous storm had passed and all was calm weather wise. But the Island base had been damaged extensively and things were strewn all over. Dad couldn't move to let someone know where he was. So he lay there and listened for the sound of anyone coming close. The water in the ditch had subsided but he had lay there almost 28 hours before someone found him. Both his knees were broken and he was in the hospital until the first part of February. They sent him home when he'd healed up enough to go. And what a surprise that was....



















Grandma had left the Christmas tree up, gifts still wrapped and decorations still out. She said it wasn't Christmas until her youngest son was home and safe. So when he did finally come home, it was to a wonderful, festive and oh so full of love celebration. Christmas in February!

So that's why it was nothing to celebrate Christmas in November for my Grandparents. And I always felt that I had the most special Grandma and Grandpa there ever was. And why now when I sit down to eat a Thanksgiving dinner with my family, I know Grandma and Grandpa are there with us.



Just can't talk mine into combining the two.....

So now it's on to Christmas and all the fun stuff that brings. But if you have any special memories of Thanksgiving, please share them with us!

And come visit again soon. Thanks for stopping.