Giving thanks

Yesterday Mom's care center had their Thanksgiving celebration. Everyone's families were invited at lunchtime to enjoy a holiday meal together. Since she has been there, we have really appreciated how hard the folks at her facility try to make life there as good as they can, especially for the holidays. They have an incredibly sweet recreational therapy team who just work their booties off constantly. And yesterday was their best event yet. The food was quite good, and they made every effort to accomodate our big group (four generations of women and our sweet patriarch!) by giving up the center's conference room. Becky put the icing on the cake by bringing in some soft music and autumnal-colored Hershey's Kisses to scatter around the table. (That last part was much appreciated by TCBitWtm, who took great delight in unwrapping -- and eating as many as Mommy would let her! -- "chocolaties.")

One of the ladies who works in the office at the care center came in to welcome us and told us that on such a day of gratitude, they feel themselves grateful that our family and others entrust our loved ones to their care. It is a difficult place for Mom to be, and certainly things do not always run smoothly, but we do appreciate that overall they are doing their best to not just give Mom what she needs, but care for her as a person. That is something for which we give thanks.

(Just as a side note, I did have a family picture from this event I was going to include, but I have always felt uncomfortable posting pictures in this public forum -- open to everyone on the planet -- of TCBitWtm's face. But I am always eager to show her off to friends and family, so if you ever want a glut of my family photos, please go to Facebook and friend me [if you don't know what I mean by that, please ask your kids or grandkids and they can explain and get you set up].)