Thanksgiving Day

This is one of my favorite holidays with my family. We have decided in recent years to pull back from some of the racing around to either “Be Company” or “To host Company.” The outcome of that decision is the intimacy of just our immediate family, breakfast with the Macy’s parade in our PJ’s, an all day fire in the fireplace, a formal dinner in dining room and then a movie. We conclude the evening with either watching the Plaza lighting either in person or live on television.

Because our family has just increased with the addition of two, three- month old, Bichon Frise’ puppies, we opted to be home for the lighting (and leftovers!) Chantilly (a.k.a. “Tilly”) and Beaumont (a.k.a. “Beau” are definitely two full handfuls of maintenance but with three willing daughters, there’s always an empty lap.

Yesterday both stores were swamped (no need for a Black Friday, this week) and getting home was rushed. Mrs. Nolte and I attended two Thanksgiving-eve parties and were ready for the quiet of today.

The movie we attended was “The Blind Side” set in the present college of Daughter #2, Ole Miss. It was fun to have the back story of the family and the movie’s central character, Michael. The movie will be remembered as one of my Top 5 favorite movies…ever. The message is “Don’t judge by appearances. Wipe away the stereo-type and start fresh with each person that comes into our orbit.”

Leigh Anne is blessed with material “success” and Michael appears to be a slob with no potential for education. Both are the opposite once the labels are stripped away.

This film should cause each of us to question, “What am I doing with the tools in my toolbox to help the next guy?” It was a perfect message for this holiday.

For what are you thankful? My answer is usually multi-faceted and truly one of them would be “My career!”

I have been blessed with the best job in the world! I love what I do each day for engaged couples and their families. I do feel like it’s using my talents to make a more memorable and lower stress experience for a major family ”Life Chapter Moment.”

All that being said, I look forward, in the coming months, to sharing those skills, talents, gifts, tools (whatever you want to call them) with you. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!