By SHELBA NIVENS / Community Columnist

Lori Champion’s family decided on a recent Sunday morning that they didn’t want to wait a week and a half to have Thanksgiving. So they had their feast that evening.

Her mother taught her how to make dressing, she said, and her sister Melissa taught her to stuff a turkey and cook a lot of other things.

“Michaela, my middle daughter, is the pecan pie maker,” Lori said, “But her interests in the kitchen haven’t come to life just yet.”

Lori and older daughter, Haven, spent four hours in the kitchen together “as I shared with her how each dish was prepared just like my mom and sister shared with me.”

Lori and husband Steve have three children. Haven, married to Alex Carden, is expecting a little girl—Lori and Steve’s first grandchild—around Christmas. Michalea is their middle child, and son Drayton, 17, is a student at Chelsea High School.

Lori said their family bond is strong and endures no matter what they go through or how they change. They may have disagreements, she said, but one thing always remains — the love they have for one another.

“When I think about the way our family comes together in good times and in bad, it takes me back to my Mamaw, Dorothy Robinson. She could make each of us feel special in some way. She cared about what was going on in our lives and showed us what true love and family devotion was all about,” she said.

Lori also said parents also showed unconditional love.

“They didn’t have material wealth but what they were able to share with us money cannot buy. My children witnessed that love also, and now thru Steve and I.”

Lori said she feels so overwhelmed with joy, as she watches her children grow up and develop. “I know God’s plan is playing out in their lives just as it has in mine.”

She knows now the feeling her mama, Mamaw and mother-in-law had, she said. It’s “a feeling of proudness, accomplishment—and gratitude.

“And this time of year is a reminder for us to look back at what God has blessed us with.”