Thanksgiving

                    

                    

Some day, I'd like to post a "Tips for Hosting Thanksgiving" blogpost.  I have a few tips and tricks up my sleeve, I think, to make things go more smoothly and make things more meaningful and pleasant. 

 But for today, I'll leave you with this singular bit of sound advice:

Don't forget to lay out clothes for the youngest of the bunch because if you don't, there is no telling what the photos will show when you finally have time to notice.  ;-) 

Thanksgiving

 

Thanksgiving was nearly PERFECT this year.   But it wasn't without its' stresses beforehand.

When the power was finally restored the previous week, we discovered quickly that the oven no longer worked.  Matt, because he is a brilliant and handy man, diagnosed the problem and ordered the part- but it took a while to get to us.  So I was without an oven for two weeks and HOSTING Thanksgiving!

I worked out a game plan: turkey in the roaster oven. (I made one a few days prior too, just to be warmed up.)  Pies baked at neighbors.  No rolls, after all.

The part came the night before and Matt installed it on Thanksgiving morning and I quickly mixed up the dough and got some rolls baking.  WE HAD ROLLS!  

Oh my, was I grateful for a working oven that day.

Speaking of rolls...

this year with the invites, I passed out rolls of paper instructing people to fill them out with things they were grateful for.  Our family is a mixed political bag and with the election so close, I wanted to be sure Thanksgiving had the proper focus.  God. Gratitude.  Gifts.

(It worked like a charm.  It happened to be my favorite part of the day.)

If you believed these nearly identical turkeys belonged to the same maker, you'd be wrong.  The blue eyed turkey belongs to Moses and its' friend belongs to Ineke.

I made those little mushrooms from dried clementine halves and cinnamon sticks.  They were the cutest little ornaments, ifidosaysomyself.  And made such a cute little garland until I could give them out as Christmas gifts.

The waiting and watching is the hardest part...

Those little 'crackers' each held a chocolate truffle and a DAD JOKE to be read aloud, along with funny little punny pins I picked out for each person.  

John, Holly, David, CC provided some entertainment by reciting Psalm 100 which then inspired us all to SING it.

Here are the "Thanksgiving Rolls" all hung.  

Originally, the plan was for everyone to read through the lists and guess which list belonged to whom.  But it actually was not hard to determine the author so there was no real winner.

But it was so, so wonderful hearing from each person what things they were thankful for.  It helps you to get to know one another more deeply.  And it was often hilarious too.  

Corynn and Kemuel read the lists aloud so no one could cheat by recognizing handwriting.

And of course... we sang Happy Birthday to our sweet Thanksgiving baby... Adele' is a gift that was written on my list that day and on my heart always.  

The snow was falling, it was beautiful outside.  The weather was cool enough to be refreshing but not freezing cold. Snowball fights ensued after dinner.  And everyone gave me five minutes to get a Christmas card photo snapped.  (Pardon the muckboots.)

Corynn and Kemuel were able to spend part of the day with us, which was a real blessing.  I remember those early marriage days when you don't want to disappoint anyone and EVERYONE wants you!  It is hard to stretch yourself to please everyone... so I tried not to put any pressure on them at all to come.  But not only did they come for dinner, but they returned that evening for cold leftovers and a movie snuggle.

Truly, the best Thanksgiving ever.

Eyes Wide Open

~ frosty flowers, dusted in crystals

~ making (and yes, eating) florescent marbled leaves

~ Rabbit Breeders of America hats made for old folks and discarded at the salvation army just exactly for MY boy.  

~ 11 year olds who wear said hats with pride.

~ the spills and scatters of an almost two year old

~ the many helping hands that help me clean up said messes

~ vibrant (and delicious) french bread pizza

~ crafty happenings in the Spare Oom,  glorious disasters everywhere!  

~ fresh and warm pretzels

~ honey mustard, heavy on the honey

~ the girl who loves chickens.  This summer, if she tottered outside when the door was open (when was it closed?!?) I knew it was probably to go see the chickens.  She is already missing those trips to 'her chicken stairs'.

~ My three Rosie the Riveters, me still my heart.

~ A week of feasting and birthdays and family and friends.

~ hand me down quilted black fabric and fur balls boughten for pennies after Christmas last year.  (I believe they were called 'vase fillers'?!?!?  Who would fill a vase with furballs, I wonder? )  A warm little hat for a dear girl that looks slightly ridiculous on.  But babies look even cuter in slightly ridiculous things.

 ~ notes from a girl who is old enough to understand and compassionate enough to take action when she overhears a Mama sigh to herself at the end of a looooooong day of doing and mutter "Did I accomplish ANYTHING I wanted to get done today at all?  I don't think I did..."

~ that girls' heart

This life is wildly full and wonderfully hard and simply sweet.  It is crazy good.

I love Thanksgiving because this is the holiday that can't get justified out in glitz or Christmas lights or Easter egg hunts or crazy costumes or reindeer or jolly old elves.  A turkey is a turkey and a feast is a feast but everyone who ever proclaimed GRATITUDE is proclaiming God as creator, maybe even without them knowing it.

No one can be grateful to anything or anyone if life is just one big cosmic accident: time and chance acting on matter over the course of billions of years. Random.  Chaos.  We are all just matter in motion.  When they say "I'm thankful for..."  you just can't be thankful for random chaos, time and chance.  Anyone sitting down at a feast and feeling grateful or having a moment of sheer delight in the world and feeling content...anyone with thankfulness beginning to creep up and out this week...is acting like a CHRISTIAN.  They are declaring the glory of the Lord, just like the heavens and the sea, and marveling at His goodness.

For that and many, many more wonderful and blessed ironies, I give thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you folks who have stuck by my long-winded and photo-heavy rants, even as they have been coming fewer and further between lately.   

I am grateful for this space, for the listening and encouraging ones that come out from behind the screen and the people who help me to really see.