The 'Thanksgiving Cabin'

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am going to tell you a story. I may have told you a little about this a long time ago.

However, some stories are worth telling a hundred times and this is just one of those.

When our children were growing up we took them to a different 'Thanksgiving Cabin' every Thanksgiving.

These cabins were always in Washington State and chosen with loving care for our needs.

No phones, no televisions

rustic and remote.

We chose cabins with fireplaces or woodstoves to warm us, and an oven large enough to cook our turkey.

We were very adventurous, we hiked, we identified trees, our children learned to play chess when they were very young at these cabins, they learned their favorite card games, learned to bake apple and pumpkin pies and Christmas cookies.

They learned to take a stack of coloring books and when they were older, they learned to take a stack of books to read.

This easily became everyone's favorite four day holiday.

We made memories.

The photo above is of one of our favorite cabins, The Longhorn Cabin in Twisp, Washington.

Below is a very remote cabin in Wenatchee, hidden in the trees, with a rushing creek beside it.

A cabin near Mt. Rainier, where we drove up to the base of the mountain and the kids spent the day building jumps and snowboarding.

Another cabin, below, along the roaring Nooksak River

There isn't much more to say. These were wonderful times.

Then our daughter, the oldest, went away to college.

Still we chose the 'Thanksgiving Cabin' and flew her home and we had a wonderful family time at a very remote cabin.

Heading back to the airport, both kids in the back seat, cleared their throats and one piped up..........

mom and dad, we have loved these 'Thanksgiving Cabins', but we don't want to do them anymore.

I was crushed, but we still had our youngest in the car on the way home, after dropping off our daughter for her flight, so I tried to hold it together, but it was not easy.

And then the following year, off to college went our son.

Thanksgiving disappeared, just like that, with the blink of an eye.

Senor and I did not find any more cabins, we sometimes cooked a turkey, sometimes something else.

In 2007, while both kids were still in college, we began our Mexico search and flew both kids to Guadalajara and spent Thanksgiving in Sayulita. Other than that wonderful holiday, we were all separate, doing our own busy thing.

Senor and I came to Alamos.

Our son began his own career, our daughter left her career to marry and have two children.

We tried restaurants for Thanksgiving, visiting friends, and finally decided the best thing for us would be to put the turkey on a spit and just eat when it's ready.

The 'Thanksgiving Cabin' drifted away, but  became something that was in my heart, memories and feelings, a scrapbook to hold.

Then, in 2018, our daughter called with a surprise request.

mom..........could you find us a 'Thanksgiving Cabin' and could we all go?

My heart soared and I found us a cabin in Colorado. Senor and I would fly into Denver, where our daughter lives and our son would fly down from Seattle.

Below is that cabin, at 9,000 feet.

Our children, and one little baby,, in the photo below.

Baking the apple pie again.

Two munchkins in 2018

Then, of course, 2019, there would be another 'Thanksgiving Cabin'.

Below, our son is making his pumpkin pie in the cabin which was at 12,000 feet.

Above Senor checks the high altitude cooking temperature on the turkey.

Below, L-R our son, our daughter and her husband and their two little ones.

And today, the turkey in the asador, on the spit.

Before the Pandemic became such serious business, I was of course,

 looking for the 'Thanksgiving Cabin'.

Like so many people we have not seen our family in some time,  not since the last cabin. 

Hopefully we will not need to wait until the next 'Thanksgiving Cabin' to see them.

It's difficult to not be with your family for this holiday, but you probably have some wonderful memories of last Thanksgiving, or the one before that.

 

I'd like to wish that everyone can find their own 'Thanksgiving Cabin.'

It doesn't have to really be a cabin.

It can be a restaurant, your own kitchen, a place in the woods, a walk along the river.

But it's a place where you can make some good memories. 

This is a Happy Thanksgiving wish to all of  you from Senor and me and here's hoping you can find inside your heart today a 'Thanksgiving Cabin'.