“There’s nothing that makes you more insane than family. Or more happy, or more exasperated, or more secure.” – Jim Butcher
Okay, so I am actually going to take the risk and say this out loud… Friday was probably our easiest run down I-95 yet. The complete trip, including stops, took eight and a half hours – just seven and a half hours of driving time. That’s remarkable.
I guess I can credit Subaru with the super comfort and excellent driving experience of our Outback. Then I can also credit all those plates of turkey and dressing and mashed potatoes and buttermilk biscuits and green-bean casseroles and pie and ice-cream for leaving millions of people with food hangovers unable to get off the couch to clog up Interstate 95 the next day.
So we coasted nicely into Jacksonville in time for dinner with Rebekah’s brother Jesse and family. Our niece Jordan and her husband Bobby were there, along with their dog Rusty. They are looking forward to baby number one – the first grandchild for Jesse and Heather.
But the main entertainment for the evening was watching the three dogs. It’s Sampson’s house, Max is the perfect quiet guest, and Rusty played the role of provocateur.
Fun fact: getting one dog to pose for a photo is hard enough, three is beyond impossible. So I snapped what was available when the dogs didn’t know I was looking.
Today the dogs will be joined by around twenty-five various and assorted family people and friends for the delayed Alexander Thanksgiving Feast. The afternoon should be beautifully chaotic.
Rebekah and I are excited because Naomi and our grandchildren will be driving up from Orlando.
Goodness and faith:
And again, our theme for this season, we will celebrate the goodness and the beauty of faith and family. Because in spite of our failings, our disappointments, our broken spirits and our unwillingness to change, God always sets a table like this for us, forgives us, and welcomes us home.
Maybe one day we will get it all together and present our very best selves in our love and our hope and our gratitude; but until then – and especially today – we know that we are home.
And sometimes that is enough.
so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. – Romans 12:5
– DEREK
