We took zero familiy pictures yesterday.
Not a single one.
I composed hundreds of insta-worthy snaps in my head as I worked in the kitchen, though, and shot exacly three of the prep/ cook process, but people pics? Nope.
Cooked clean and neat, kept my workspace relatively tidy, had the filters and the finished images in my brain, a couple of which wound up on my phone album: dough blob in the bowl (this one was simply so I could know what "double in size" looked like), risen dough, and finished dinner rolls.
And that was it. Three pictures to capture 12 hours of cooking and 25 minutes of family and eating.
And today, regret.
Not regret for the time spent in the kitchen- that was time well spent, for sure. The food was delightful- we had a gorgeous bird- my first time brining was a rousing success- sausage and cornbread stuffing, green bean salad, apple crumble, pound cake (made and brought warm by Gail, so tasty), corn pudding, herb dinner rolls, meatloaf, pasta salad, mac & cheese, and mashed potatoes. Failed to provide anything pumpkin or sweet potato, but I can't do it all, I reckon.
Nope. The regret washed over me in terms of photographically recording the day.
There are people who say "put down the phone/ camera and be present" and I could not agree more. It's important to our families and to our friends to be there, with them, in the precious moments we can't get back. When it comes to memories, though, my boo-boo'ed brain can't always retrieve those, so I rely heavily on the visual reminders in photos. In my life now, the intention of presence has become second nature, and I've been gifted with God's desire for me to be aware of the good and the surroundings He's given me. I have to take pictures of absolutely everything, though, and my phone's photo album at any given time has over 3k reminders of the heart-shares I might not otherwise be able to pull back to recollection.
And from Thanksgiving 2021, I've got 3 dough pics and the picture Aaron took of the table after we had already disturbed each dish and second-slaughtered the bird. Not one family face, pregnant Grace belly-pic, terrible-angle-I-can't-believe-you-took-a-pic-while-I'm-taking-a-bite, posed-in-front-of-the-tree... none. I keep thinking "this is Grace's pregnancy Thanksgiving" and "what if one of us isn't here next Thanksgiving" or "what kind of mom doesn't take any pics of her kids on Thanksgiving"...
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