Aunties

I just wanted to write a tribute to some of the craziest, zaniest, Christlike people I know. I shall call them the Aunties.
It's funny because growing up, I thought they were the meanest moms of my cousins, keeping us from having fun, making us do chores, but as I matured, I realized that my aunts are the awesomest people I associate with.

I guess I'm thinking about them because this coming week is Thanksgiving--a time for gathering with the family. In bygone years, when the cousins were youngsters, we assembled at my grandma's house for the big feast. While most people ate off china, the aunties had the smarts to insist on chinette so no one had to do the dishes and miss out on the after dinner conversation. Oh, and the pie! Nearly a pie a piece, cherry, pumpkin, apple, chocolate and my mom's own no-bake cheesecake.

Now, it's not the food--slabs of pit smoked turkey, or tossed salad with raisins, our family's secret recipe blue-ribbon winning rolls--on paper plates remember that I am missing this year. No, I miss the great Hen Party that happens over the break from school. Our hen party is where everyone can bring a craft project to work on while getting advice and praise from the other aunties. One aunty, (I'll call her Tia), sits with her Pfaff sewing machine she named Jackie because the black antique makes a jack hammer sound (and shakes the table) when she sews her stunningly coordinated quilts. She the aunt who always has some quilt to make, someone is getting married, someone is having a baby, graduating etc. I admire this aunt. She has learned the discipline of speaking graciously, serves, magnifies her calling by going the extra mile, keeps herself open to inspiration. I look up to her because she has lived a frugal life off a single salary, a school teacher no less and yet gives and creates and increases her talents.

I have to pause now. More later.