Thanksgiving, Nash-style.

Thanksgiving 2009.

There’s a lot I want to say. It was beautiful. Truly.

The downside: I didn’t get to spend Thanksgiving day with my family. Though, I did spend the entire weekend with my parents so surely, on some great scoreboard in the sky, that counts for something.

I knew I should get that out there first because otherwise the email. from the mother. would be stern.

So.

Let me tell you what was amazing about my Thanksgiving: it was full of Nashville.

You saw video footage of my first Thanksgiving. It was with our small group from church. We sat around Marisa’s living room and we laughed. And talked. And I teared up [duh] when we all held hands and Andy prayed, “God, thanks for us.”

The second Thanksgiving dinner I attended was Cowboys Pilgrims and Indians. Which I’m embarrassed to admit to you, but I brought sweet tea. I know. I love to cook. And I usually love to show out cook for my friends. But a long train of disastrous scheduling had this little pilgrim showing up with 2 gallons of tea instead of my grandmother’s famous mashed potatoes.

I think Paula Deen just disowned me.

Here’s a photo of some of the gals- you know Betsy- the Indian on the top left [we called her by her Native American name, “Lounges on Chair”] and then Molly beside her. On my left is Laura and on my right is Marisa. And on our laps? It’s rude to draw attention to how much what a group of ladies ate for dinner. Look away, please.

tgiving

My third Thanksgiving feast was on Saturday night at the family’s home where I nanny. It’s funny, I started working for them in January. I got to be friends with them over the next few months. And then, all of the sudden, they were my family.

My family. They love me well, y’all.

There were too many good things that night. So many of my dear friends were there. The night was full of conversations that I want to hang on to and a pile of other moments that I’ve tucked into some small box in my heart that I treasure.

So I’m not going to blog about those.

But a week later, I’m still bubbly with thanksgiving. I still lay in bed at night and thank God for my people. I’m reminded of how I felt a little over a year ago, when I was really sad and really new to Nashville:

It’s to be expected. I know that. I know that at some point in the future, Nashville will refresh me. Somebody (or somebodies) here will get me. They will join the vagabond group that are my people. And I will feel like me here. Right now, I don’t. I mean, hilarious stuff happens here and I’m happy, but at the core, in my knower, I’m not brave enough to be me.

The EXACT things that I worried about and prayed for God to change are the EXACT things I’m thanking Him for this year.

Tell me we don’t serve a personal God who knows our hearts.

To say I’m thankful is an understatement.

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Tomorrow… a full recap of my trip to NYC for the parade! [And by “full recap”, I mean “Everything except the details of my food poisoning.” Ewwww.]

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