I'm touched.

Well, here I sit in Illinois with 1 hour and 40 minutes left for Thanksgiving as I begin this post. Today was a great day. I spent it at Sis and BiL's house. They hosted a combined "his family, her family" dinner and it was really great. I liked it having it this way. A few years ago when Ma had a boyfriend, she would go to his family get together, both of my brothers had their own "other" family things to do, my older sis usually planned to do Thanksgiving with her boyfriend/fiance of the time (now husband), and my younger sister's boyfriend was a psycho who wouldn't let her associate with her sibs very often. So, that left me. At home. All alone. And sad because it sucks to be alone on holidays. So, Sis and her bf (now husband) would invite me to his family things. They said, "What's one more? Plus, everyone likes you." So, I only had to do one or two holidays alone before BiL's family "adopted" me. And so, now that we've all come back together for Thanksgiving, it's nice to have an even bigger event with multiple families.

Anyway, dinner was ready, the turkey and ham were carved, and we were ready to start dishing up the food when all of a sudden I hear, "Trish! Trish!" I looked up and it was BiL. He said, "Come here." So I went over to where he was and he said, "Why don't you say a prayer?" And I said, "Me? I've never done the family prayer before." (We have always done, "Come Lord Jesus...") He said, "Well, this is going to be your line of work, so I'd appreciate it." So, BiL got everyone's attention and said, "Ok, listen up!" Everyone got quiet and I said, "Let's have a prayer." And then we bowed our heads and I said a prayer of thanksgiving. And at the end, we all said "Amen" and I looked up and a few of the guys were wiping tears from their eyes. And I was and still am touched because the men involved are not the crying type. Far from it, really. But I hope the prayer was able to help us all see how much we have to be thankful for. Below is basically what I said (Considering the fact I was not expecting to have to give a prayer, and that it came off the top of my head and from the bottom of my heart).

Prayer of Thanksgiving 11-23-06
Heavenly Father, we give you thanks today for the food that is about to nourish our bodies, and for the fellowship to refresh our souls.
We give you thanks especially for the two families who have come together today to share in a meal and in laughter.
We also give thanks for the many generations represented here today, that help us see that we are all connected.
Bless our time together as a family with friendship, fellowship, and laughter. For all these things, we give you thanks. For this we pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.