Thanksgiving...in Spring??

Yesterday we enjoyed a quiet Thanksgiving with delicious food and sisterly conversation. Our Thanksgiving meal was generously provided by The Grand Summit Hotel  and we were thrilled to hear that it was their busiest Thanksgiving in over a decade!  Many other friends dropped off food for Thanksgiving which also found its way to the table. We received so many donations of "Thanksgiving" food that we will be able to enjoy it during the Sundays of Advent, too! 

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on what you are thankful for. So what are we thankful for this Thanksgiving? A new furnace made possible by the generous donations of benefactors hits the top of the list as the mercury hits the bottom of the thermometer at night! We also just learned that our second annual Gala netted a phenomenal $280,000! So this Thanksgiving we're thankful for all the extraordinary people who made the Gala a reality, especially our wonderful Gala co-chairs Lizanne Kenney and Martha MacCallum Gregory!  Above all we're thankful for all of the people who through their generosity make it possible for us to live out our vocation as cloistered nuns. So thank you!

With the arrival of Thanksgiving we've turned our attention to preparing for Advent, just a few short days away! Yet nature seems to think it is spring? A few of the sisters have been startled to find their gardens budding and blooming when they went out to put them to bed for winter. New asparagus has begun to grow, the daffodils are popping up, an African daisy in Sr. Danielle's flower garden that is supposed to die at the first shiver of cold is blooming, the pussy willows are putting out their fuzzy buds, the hydrangeas are leafing out, daylilies and cardinal flowers are still budding and blooming.  So while our last post spoke of the tendency of Christmas to be celebrated earlier and earlier, it seems that this year we celebrated Thanksgiving in Spring!