Thankful for sure

Presently I am sitting in bed with sore feet and a tired mind...just like millions of other people today. I started the day before 6am making sure that Tom Turkey, or as my grandmother used to call it "Turkey Lurkey", had safe passage into the Jenn-Air for his five hour tanning session. Attempts to go back to sleep were in vain as the boy had gotten up with me and was in all of his wiggly glory. Eventually I gave up and got dressed in my dinner prep uniform and descended into a wave of roasted yumminess. The next several hours are a blur, but included(not in any particular order): visit from the VA cousins and jubilation as all the kids rough house and bodyslam each other in celebration; discovery that I had cleaned and dressed the turkey and roasted him upside down...very moist; the revelation that one can sustain a fairly severe hand injury from a "lively" game of Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots and that holding babies really does lower one's blood pressure.

We did have a great experience this evening. Our minds had been with Stanley, the gentleman who had helped us look for a new television a couple weeks ago. As I explained, due to Black Friday starting on Thursday, this was his 6th Thanksgiving with his famiy he was going to miss due to company requirements. We were so sad and had invited him to come eat with us, but we knew he wouldn't...but he appreciated the thought. The boy can be very convincing, but the poor guy probably just needed to have his feet up before being on the sales floor all night. He remained in our minds and hearts for the next several days. After ingesting enough food to feed a small country, the boy said, "What about Stanley?". We chuckled, looked at each other and began the deliberations. If people you had met twice brought you a plate of food, would you eat it? Would you be scared that it might not be cooked properly? What if he has food allergies? Would it seem creepy or too forward? We came to the conclusion that we would bring him a sampling of all the desserts just in case he didn't have access to a fridge. A tray was located and a bag with napkins and plastic utensils was prepared. We had plates of dessert and labels on them so no one with any conscience would take them:



We were all kind of nervous walking in there, not gonna lie. A couple of people looked at us in a suspicious way. Some employees came up and said, "Look at the food...where is that going?". After we explained that it was going to our friend Stanley, they looked disappointed. We saw him and he looked at us out of the corner of his eye. He was making a sale, so we didn't want to bother him. Then he walked by us, got a grin on his face, and said, "I'll be right with you folks." A couple minutes later he walked towards us, kind of shook his head and grinned. "We decided to bring you some treats to enjoy on this busy evening...get you good and sugared up to make some money." He shook his head, put his arm around me and said, "I can't tell you folks how much this means to me." He just stood there a minute and it felt like he didn't know what to say. We tried to alleviate his surpise and explained to him what was on each of the plates and who had prepared them. The boy got a fist bump for his chocolate dipped strawberries and S received a proper handshake for her mint chocolate trifle. "We just couldn't get you off our hearts, Stanley, and we wanted you to know we were thinking of you." Again he shook his head. "Thank you all so much. I can't say anything else or I'm going to cry." He gave another hug, handshake and fist bump and we let him get back to his work. We all walked out to the car a bit teary. Sure we had lots of food and family and fun and they were all great...but who knew that the little question "What about Stanley?" would lead to our favorite part of the day. Night all.
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