Happy Thanksgiving

Abe and Ella

begot

Estelle, Janette and Miriam

who married

Al, Joel and Harry

who begot

Richard, Lynn, Niel, Barbara, Judy and Jerry

who married

Judy, Michael, Meloney, Mike, David and Rebecca

who begot

Dan, Adena, Lisa, Debra, John, Amy, Ashly, Jake, Sarah and Laurel*

(*most of whom have married now and have 0-3 children each)

By the time we were this many (40)

and you added Joel's father and mother, brother and his wife, and their two daughters, (55)

and later their husbands;

who also married and begot four or five children

and you added the family who worked for Uncle Harry in his store (61)

and you added another family friend and/or neighbor (65)

Our Thanksgiving Table(s) GREW and GREW and GREW

until the children of the grandchildren had children

and no one any longer had a house big enough to hold them all

and they began to split up into smaller households

and have their own Thanksgiving dinners in their own homes

with each original grandchild with their children and their own grandchildren

and so it goes some near

some far away

some passed on

and so it is

Thanksgiving

a

traditional Family Holiday

one of being together

and one of

Giving Thanks

for all we are

and all we have

counting our blessings

PS: In the photo that's me about 64 years ago eating the turkey leg!

(with my grandparents Abe and Ella, my parents, brother, two aunts and uncles and the first two cousins)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU AND YOURS

ENJOY!