A Thanksgiving Story

Here’s the thing I keep thinking about. It’s an image. But it wasn’t captured on film or digitally. I don't even know if anyone else saw it. Maybe I imagined the whole thing.

On Wednesday we shopped for a wedding dress for Elena. Elena, her sisters Jennifer and Amelia, and Elena's four-year-old niece and baby nephew. And me, the Mother-of-the-Bride. 

It was a whirlwind day; an exhausting but successful adventure. At least for me. The four-year-old niece and the baby nephew of the bride-to-be did very well.

Four-year-old niece patiently waits for the next dress reveal.

The day made me feel wizzy deird, as my mother once said during a spell of vertigo. Like I was on the carousel at Amelia's wedding.

Wedding-veil whirl on the carousel at Amelia's wedding.

Wedding dress shopping made me feel all the Mother-of-the-Bride feels. 

Me, when I saw Amelia at her wedding.

Made me feel like this

↓↓

After the shopping was finished, we all gathered at Amelia's for a pre-holiday meal of traditional Sesma sukiyaki. Then we were even more exhausted. Adults; exhausted. The four year-old and the one month-old; exhausted. We all needed sleep.

But wait. We haven’t all been together since Elena & Evan got engaged. This was the first time Jennifer and Elena met their new one-month-old baby nephew!. We needed to have a toast! 

And so, a quick toast with some Cava. Someone took a picture of Elena opening opening the bottle!

Avinyo Reserva Cava 2014

We celebrated these two major milestones in the family and these are the only photos. 

Not one photo (that I know of) on any of the SEVEN phones! Of the Cava in seven glasses or of the seven glasses raised in a toast. 

And yet my mental image of those seven glasses of pale golden Cava raised in celebration and filling my field of vision, is the image that is stored in my memory for Thanksgiving 2018.

THAT is the image I keep thinking about. A little golden moment in time. Like a flash of warm golden sunlight to call to mind when it's needed. Or, maybe I imagined it.