Thanksgiving Family Treasure

Originally posted 11/19/11. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

While unpacking the Thanksgiving tablecloth I discovered a "family treasure" at the bottom of the box. There I found these carefully wrapped ceramic turkey candle holders.

Many years ago our son was in the United States Marine Corps. Right before the holidays he was assigned to Okinawa, Japan. This would be the first time he was not home for Thanksgiving.

To keep depression at bay my husband would come up with one outing after another. Even though we needed nothing to decorate the house he insisted we go shopping.

As we negotiated a crowded store Doug suddenly disappeared. Several minutes later he showed up with a huge smile on his face and these turkeys in his hands. Thinking he wanted them for our home I reminded him we had more than enough decorations.

Truth be told I could not understand his excitement. Then he told me he wanted to send them to our son. So off I went the next day to mail a care package filled with snacks, magazines and two turkeys.

When Justin called Thanksgiving morning the first words out of his mouth were "thanks for the turkeys!" Seems he and his fellow Marines thought they were a hoot and placed them on their holiday table.

I was in for a big surprise when Justin returned home from service. While unpacking he handed me a box. There he stood with the same smile seen on his father's face years before.

Looking down I found the ceramic turkeys carefully wrapped to survive a journey across the world. I honestly had forgotten about them and never expected to see them again.

When asking Justin why he saved them he replied "they are now Ruth family turkeys and must be saved". So that was that!

And that is the story of our ceramic turkey heirloom candle holders.