Until just a few years ago, Thanksgiving meant going to my paternal Grandmother’s house outside White Plains, Kentucky.
I don’t ever remember doing anything else. We called her Honey. My big brother, Gary, was their first grandchild and when he heard Papaw call his wife Honey, he figured that was her name. So Gary called her Honey and it stuck. Honey died this year after a few years in assisted living and a nursing home.
The day before we buried her, the new owners knocked down that house where we gathered for all those Thanksgiving celebrations. It’s sad to think we’ll never go back there. But no matter where I eat my turkey and dressing, I’ll be there in my mind (just as Christmas will remind me of my other grandparents).
We’re going to have Dad’s side of the family at our house this year. I would say that is crazy, but if Honey could pull it off in her little house, then surely we can do it at our house. Of course, it means several people will be sitting on the floor watching football on TV with an overflowing plate of food on their lap.
I’m not saying we’re going to do this every year. We’re all in tradition transition. Everything changes, everything except this; we have so much for which to be thankful.
Despite Ann’s illness, our blessings are “pressed down, shaken together and overflowing.” God is good still and always.
Happy Thanksgiving
Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving to you and your family…….God’s blessings flow all day, every day…
Being one of the original Hee Haw cousins, I can only say Amen! to your comments on our family tradition of Thanksgiving,
Randy. We are certainly looking forward to seeing everyone, and are so thankful you and Ann have invited us to your house.
God’s ultimate gift of healing to us was given in love, and there will be an abundance of love in your household this Thanksgiving.
As Ann would say, Much Agape!
Ann, Randy, and the entire Moore family. My love, prayers, and good memories of knowing
your wonderful family, and yes….real special memories of Honey, are in my heart and mind.
Thanksgiving Day blessings to you all.
Toni Critser
As another one of those crazy cousins, I find myself, like you guys, thinking of our childhoods at Honeys on Thanksgiving.
It’s funny how even as we grew into adults with families of our own, we still couldn’t wait for the big day, sitting on the back porch stuffing our faces,
re-living the stories of our youth, then rushing out to play the annual football game… or for some of us as the bone started creaking a bit,
tried to refree the younger ones. (it’s rough to realize you’re older and it takes longer to recover from pulled muscles… all because of the Honey Bowl rivalry!)
Still, it was Honey, that true and faithful servant, that truly drew us to that small farmhouse in the middle of the “country block” each and every year.
During this holiday weekend I believe that we should all stop to say a special prayer of Thanksgiving for having a grandmother
who taught us all the real meaning of family and tradition… a Godly woman of deep faith who loved her Lord first, with her family right behind him.
Through good times, and those “not so great” times, her faith never waivered, even for a second.
May we all find solace in her testimony and carry her strength with us, until we see her again.
If you’re reading this, Have a Blessed Thanksgiving…
Randy, Ann, and the whole Hee Haw gang,
we’ll see you tomorrow!
Randy and Ann,
Here’s wishing you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving, and God bless!
Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. Randy, you and Brian came to our home in Tell City to film our sons, Evan and Colin. Since then we have another son,
Andrew–3 boys now! We pray for your family and hope that we can instill in our boys the value of faith, hope, and love that your family lives daily.