Last year I was living in Virginia still and my mom came to spend the holiday with family here in Utah. That left just my dad and me at home for Thanksgiving. We invited our elderly neighbor from down the hill to share our big meal with us. She is a widow and both of her children have passed away already, so we try to visit and help her, though I think we all could do better at it. I cooked a turkey breast for the first time, and it turned out at least reasonably well, I thought. The meal and company was somewhat smaller than we've had before, but I enjoyed the day still.
Hurricane Sandy had hit the Northeast earlier in November, and on the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving, our ward had mentioned that the stake might be organizing a group to go help with relief efforts and wanted to see how many volunteers could go. I signed up because I like to be involved with such things and as I wasn't working, it seemed like perfect timing for me. I was surprised, however, when on Wednesday, I received an email confirming the trip would be over the holiday weekend. Frantic arrangements were made, and so even on Thanksgiving I was preparing to leave early the following morning for New York.
The stake had hired a bus to take us all up, but it was only arranged to make a stop in Charlottesville and one in Waynesboro for our side of the mountain. So at 5:30 AM, I hopped into my car loaded with all the useful tools we had in the house and started for Waynesboro. As I drove, I couldn't help thinking of all the shoppers that were also up at the moment, but for very different reasons. Most years, I myself would have been taking advantage of Black Friday sales, though much later. That year, however, that idea felt very distant and foreign to me.
As I drove straight east on the long road to the stake center, I had the moon and 1 bright morning star, probably Venus directly in my sight. In the quiet morning, on the day that marks the beginning of the Christmas season, I felt a kinship with the wise men and the shepherds, following the star to Christ. While I would not personally greet the tiny Savior, I knew that serving His children in His stead would draw me closer to Him.
The trip up was pretty uneventful. There were about 50 of us, including President Waite, the 1st councilor in our stake presidency. Mostly men were there, but there were also about 10 women. 4 people from my ward came. By the time we made it up to the church we were going to stay in and unpacked, it was getting too dark to do any work that day. So we were turned loose and told to be ready bright and early the next morning. I ended up clumping with three others from my ward, Jeff Goodsell, Margaret Patterson, and Erin Reed. We decided it would be fun to walk into the city and explore a bit, with the thought of seeing the tree at Rockefeller Center.
We started off from the church and crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, which gave a nice view of the city as the sun set. We walked through Chinatown and just kept going. We ended up walking through Grand Central Station, which was beautiful, and went from there to Rockefeller Station, where we were disappointed to discover that the tree was erected, but hadn't been lit yet! It was still fun to watch the ice skaters and walk through the Lego store there, which had all kinds of amazing Lego sculptures, including a huge dragon that wrapped its way through pretty much the whole store! On our way back, we stopped by some interesting toy store which featured a menagerie of huge stuffed animals that I enjoyed. It was a pretty freezing and dreary evening, with some sleet starting as we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge again.
As an aside, it was on the Brooklyn Bridge on the way back where Margaret and Jeff, who had been dating for a little while, held hands for the first time. This Thanksgiving weekend, on the 1st anniversary of that occasion, they were married in DC!
I was completely beat by the time we got back, so I was ready for bed. I wasn't sure why I felt so exhausted until we realized that we had walked something over 10 miles that evening! I was enjoying the sights and getting to spend time with my friends joking and talking such that it didn't seem that far. The next day, I was definitely regretting all that walking as I started the day out pretty dang sore before the work even started!
I hadn't anticipated writing so much, but I've only covered the first day and still have a lot to talk about, so I think I will put the rest in another post for later. Stay tuned for Part II!
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