We had the family out for Thanksgiving this week. It was quite the time. Not only did we have 17 people stuffed into our medium-sized house, but we also had 4 dogs. And on top of that, my grandma is suffering from depression and doesn't respond well to change- especially change involving four dogs and lots of little kids in a closed area. however, things went as well as could be expected...and then came time for Thanksgiving dinner. My Mom has a special gift for inviting in lonely people or families during the holidays, which is greatly admirable. I would be o.k. with it if we limited our number of guests to the number of chairs we had in our possession, though. As people poured through the door Thursday afternoon, I asked myself, how in the world are all these people going to fit around the table? We finally worked something out involving a piano bench, plenty of lawn chairs, and very little elbow room. I must admit I didn't have the best attitude as we settled down to pray over the meal. "We already have plenty of family over," I told myself. "Isn't that enough? Why do we always need to be looking for more people to invite?" As the meal progressed, though, I started how silly my thinking was. Here were people- including a recently returned soldier, a young lady whose father had an order of restraint, and a college student who was so determined to get through college debt-free that he was working during thanksgiving break instead of going home- people who would probably be spending thanksgiving alone. I have so much to be thankful for- a loving family, a warm home- that I should be more than ready to share these blessing with people who might not have them in such abundance. That's the lesson I learned this Thanksgiving.