Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving....one of my favorite holidays and also one of the hardest holidays for my family. When we moved north from California we left all extended family behind. When it came to holidays we had to create new traditions for ourselves. Somewhere, somehow my parents found out about a little out of the way Christian retreat Center in Oregon called Christian Renewal Center, or CRC for short. They have retreats all year round and week long summer family camps. One of their most popular retreats is their Thanksgiving Retreat. It starts with a delicious Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving day and continues with great fellowship the rest of the weekend. They have a guest speaker for the adults and classes for the kids. Our first year going to CRC was in 1993 I believe. We never missed a year until 2001 I think. Some of my fondest memories and closest times with my family happened at CRC. I love it because it makes Thanksgiving more than just one day of stuffing ourselves on food and watching football and shopping the next day. It really makes the focus on family and God. I don't know how to celebrate Thanksgiving any other way. It just feels weird to me not to be there. Charlie and I went our first year of marriage when I was pregnant with Brendan. The years that followed we spent Thanksgiving many different ways with different family each year. This last year we really needed to do our own thing for Thanksgiving so we decided to go to CRC. It was a last minute decision so we were only able to squeeze in for the meal but hopefully one year soon we'll stay the whole weekend and soak in the love and warmth that CRC is all about. 

Because of the elevation of CRC in Silverton, Or there is always a chance for snow on Thanksgiving. We were so excited that this was one of those special years! We knew there would be a little snow but we weren't prepared for how much there really was. Good thing we only stayed for the day! The boys really enjoyed playing in the snow.