Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Thanksgiving week-end brings back so many memories for me.  Some recent and some from childhood.

I can remember spending Thanksgiving at our cottage on Lake Paul.  Sometimes it was just our family of four but other times Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins took the drive and spent the week-end  with us.  Adults and kids would play hide n seek, pictionary outside at night under the street light  that was attached to a tree and spend the evening gathered in front of the fire pit eating some form of the  combination of cracker, peperoni and jalapeno pepper.  I remember an uncle with sensitive taste buds eating the pepper, running to the end of the wharf and submerging his entire face into the lake to cool off his tongue.  I was a kid then so maybe I wasn't privy to all the details of the story, but JAF, that made me laugh.  Of course we always had the big supper too, and to the adults I'm sure it was not just an after though, but as a kid running around having fun, supper wasn't how I remembered the week-end.

As a teenager I remember spending Thanksgiving week end much the same way, just in a different location.  Grandparents, uncles and cousins would come down from "the city" to spend the day at our house in the country.  We'd head down the road to Oaklawn Zoo for the last visit of the year - we'll everyone except Dad because they had a snake there so for him that meant "Do Not Enter".  It didn't mater that it was in a barn, in a cage and I don't think there was ever a single escape story, well a true one.  We use to tell Dad once and awhile "did you hear" and then go on with some elaborate story of how the snake had escaped and was spotted making his way up the mountain towards our house.  I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise when he wouldn't go.  We almost went to Bush Gardens in Florida.  That is until Dad spotted a pamphlet that showed snakes on it.  Opps.  I'm not sure if we all knew there were snakes there and didn't tell him or if we were just as surprised as him to find out about the snakes.  But even having tickets in hand didn't mean entrance to Bush Gardens.  If there were snakes, all deals were off.  Period. We went to Wet N Wild instead.  We did have a blast there, it was a good distraction from the Bush Garden debacle.

 Whoa, way off topic there.   Back to Thanksgiving.

 There was always a few games of soccer, we'd jump the neighbors fence and run around the cow pasture.  My sister and I would try to gross out the city kids by throwing the cow patties at them and we'd try to find the cows in the pasture and scope out where the bull was.  I don't know we always did this.  It scared the bejebers out of me, the thought of that bull charging me and knowing I likely couldn't out run him, but we did anyways.  I guess that was just part of living in the country. 

More recently there have significant events that happened around the Thanksgiving week-end.

Four years ago we were living in Yellowknife and were among the many shocked and horrified people to learn of the murder of an RCMP member in Hay River, NWT.    It hit close to home.  R was immediately sent to work in Hay River (5 hours away) and I spent the day with close friends and their family.

For a few years we were lucky enough to have friends and family travel to Yellowknife to spend the week-end with us.  We had a blast.  The weather is still fairly nice in Yellowknife at Thanksgiving.  Nothing a toque and a pair of mitts can't fix.  We walked around Frame Lake, went to a few local hot spots like Pilot's Monument, hike up Cameron Falls and maybe even hit a few local beverage establishments........ 

One time we went to The Gold Range.  Anyone who knows this place is either smiling or cringing right now.  I'm pretty sure The Gold Range should be considered a National Historic Site.  It is a bar, a really divey bar.  The first time I was there they had faded pink terry cloth towels on the tables as table clothes.  Smoking was still allowed in the bar so they had cigarette burn holes scattered on them.  So picture it:  Smokey, terry cloth table cloths, carpet on the floor BUT don't forget the band.  The band is what makes all that worth it.  The band is awesome.  It is a dive, but I've never had a bad time there.  Classy, I know.

Another time we took our guests to The Black Night Pub.  This pub is more like the traditional English pub.  Alot more tasteful than The Gold Range.  The night that we went over Thanksgiving we ended up meeting up with a Canadian Coast Guard crew that were getting ready to sail again the next morning.  We spent hours talking about all their Northern experiences.  Those guys have some great stories to tell. 

And then there was last year.

As I sit here thinking about how I am going to phrase this I am getting goosebumps. 

What are the right words to describe the moment and days that changed your life forever?  How do find words to describe how your heart literally doubled in size in a moment of minutes?

I don't think there are words to describe the feelings, the emotions and the thoughts.

One year ago we met our son.

LOVE