Saturday, November 24, 2018

How I Spent My 12th Blog Anniversary/Thanksgiving

November 22, 2006 was the first day of Letters from a Hill Farm. I had been getting advice from my friend Les and her husband Rod about how to start a blog, she having started hers some months earlier. My internet connection was slow and I got frustrated thinking it would never work. I remember saying I could just read my Gladys Taber without writing about her! But finally, it was all sorted out, and here I still am, a dozen years later. A dozen years back from that first day was 1994. That puts some perspective on ol' father time, doesn't it!!

We expected to be home just having a regular day, as we often do on Thanksgiving, but a day or two before, Estée, our daughter-in-law told us a story. She said they had been talking to the boys about being thankful, and explained they were going to her parents' house for Thanksgiving and that they were all thankful for them. Campbell Walker said, "are Pop and Nana going to be there, because I am thankful for them." Well, that's all it took, of course! Actually, we had been invited, a sort of open invitation every year, but we hadn't been before.

It was a lovely, lovely day.They are renovating an old house.They have two dogs, Hamish the Bernese Mountain dog, and Angus the Golden Retriever. And there is little Indy Thomas!


There was great food, and tons to eat for the vegetarians! My pictures from the day are mostly in-motion shots, and quite blurry, like the above. There was lots of good conversation and after dinner lots of music and dancing. Here is a little bit of Campbell Walker. I love his expressions!


When we went around and said what we were thankful for, I said, "family."

35 comments:

  1. It sounds like a perfect day. Happy Blogaversary.

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  2. Congratulations on your 12th Blogaversary and also, on spending your Thanksgiving with Campbell Walker and all his family!

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  3. So happy you went to that side of the family this year! Your grandchildren are adorable. Happy anniversary on your blog, you are an inspiration to me and many others.

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  4. Sounds like a wonderful day, Nan! Love the dancing! Glad you guys went and participated. We had a very nice day as well. Lots of good food (with selections that worked well for me and the big guy) and enjoying being with a nephew and his wife that we don't see all the time. Our girl was working and then with her 'big guy's' family in the evening. Took a really nice long walk with a sister-in-law and two nieces. Fun chats with them and greeting others and their dogs along a walking trail. Just about perfect!

    Happy Blogversary as well! 12 years - can't believe it! You and Les were the ones that encouraged me to begin a blog and you've both stuck it out, though all of our blogging has evolved and changed over time a bit. Which is all good, right? Looking forward to what 2019 holds. Take care, dear friend!

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    1. Sounds like a perfect day! I like the idea of a walk on Christmas and Thanksgiving. From the TV shows I've seen, it seems like the English do that more than we do. Although in A Child's Christmas in Wales all the uncles sleep after dinner, while the aunts clean up!

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  5. Happy Blogiversary, Nan! So glad I found you, and have enjoyed reading your posts. You have a beautiful family! :)

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  6. Happy Blogaversary, Nan. And thank you for inviting us into your life through your blog posts. I have enjoyed it almost as long as you have been writing it.
    And, it sound like you really did have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your daughter-in-laws family., and family is what it's all about.

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    1. Thank you for your words!! And yes, it is about family, even if family is friends rather than relatives.

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  7. He is so cute! Children really feel the music, don't they?

    I can truly imagine how good the vegetarian dishes would be for Thanksgiving because the side dishes are much better than the turkey, in my opinion, with cranberry sauce my favorite of all.

    12 years of blogging? That's amazing, Nan, congratulations! I didn't even know there was such a thing as blogs until someone told me about them in 2011. But then I'm a slow learner. My daughter had to force me to borrow her laptop about 2010 and give up my typewriter.

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    1. There were two homemade breads and several potato dishes and two pies that I had! Your last paragraph made me chuckle!

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  8. Congratulations on your 12 year Blogaversary! That little boy is a might fine dancer :) I always say I'm grateful for family too. I spent Thanksgiving with my son, daughter and her family, SIL's mom, dad, aunt, and an uncle.

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    1. Thank you! I think he's a good dancer, too. He has had a sense of rhythm since he was little. I love the expression on his face, like he's really thinking about what he wants to do. Sounds you had a lovely day!

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  9. Family, yes! It is something we only have limited choice about - we are born by chance into a certain family, but then as we grow up, we can start our own families, no matter whether they are blood relations or not. And they are so important, aren't they! That was brought home to me especially after my husband's death 9 years ago, and this year once more, with my eye operation and then my Dad's near fatal illness. Now he is back home with my Mum, and I am so grateful for still having both my parents around - not to be taken for granted at my age!

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    1. Absolutely! And yes, family is a broad term. Sometimes friends are one's family, or closer than family. Or animals. So many people now speak of having "grand-dogs" and being a dog mom!

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  10. What a lovely way to spend Thanksgiving! I'm sure family would have been my answer, too. Happy 12th bloggiversary :)

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  11. What a lovely Thanksgiving, Nan. Like you I'm eternally thankful for 'family'. No idea what I would do without them.

    I think you started your blog a year or so before me. And here we are still going strong. Happy Blogaversary to you.

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  12. Glad u had a nice Thanksgiving and congrats on 12 years Nan. (10 here).

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  13. It sounds like a perfect day! I'm so glad you're (still) blogging, because the window you open always brings a refreshing breeze. Thank you and happy blog anniversary!

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    1. What a very, very nice thing to say. The "breeze" is pretty refreshing outdoors today!

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  14. That sounds like a lovely Thanksgiving and I too am glad that you have continued blogging over the years.

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  15. What a gift...family. So glad you went.

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  16. That was a good day NaN! And family ...immediare and extended .... is definitely something to be thankful for. After our family was all grown up and moved out of the house, we often invited their in-laws to share our day on TG. I went to lunch the other day with our youngest son’s mother-in-law and we talked about that. (But we used to go away every other year on the long weekend ... I didn’t ever want our kids to think they *had* to celebrate every holiday with us for the rest of their lives. (When we were young marrieds, we had that problem... somebody was always disappointed.)

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    1. How very kind and thoughtful of you. Would that more parents were like that.

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  17. I'm so glad you stuck with the early challenges of blogging and are now celebrating a dozen years of letters. That seems like a lifetime ago, doesn't it? Like you, I am most thankful for family and friends. They share our joys and comfort us in our sorrows. xoxo

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