The best part of Thanksgiving

When we Americans think of Thanksgiving probably the first thing that pops into our minds is Turkey Dinner with all the trimmings …..

….Eaten on beautifully set tables….

…Followed by pumpkin pie and other delicious desserts.

Of course the big meal is an important part of Thanksgiving…. but it is not the most important part of this holiday.

To me the most important part of this holiday is being with family, counting our blessings and giving thanks to God.

Being with family

Lynell, Erin, David and their families travel from Utah to join us.

Mindy lives only 30 minutes away from us. She and Ernie open up their home with hospitality and make visiting family feel welcome and loved.

It is so nice to have all my family together. We work.  We play. We pray. We love.  Getting 23 people together, ranging in ages from 1 to 69, involves lots of work and it can be a bit hectic and noisy…. but what fun! We are certainly not a perfect family…. but we are perfect for each other.  I consider it such a blessing that all my children and their children love each other so much and enjoy being together. We missed being with our grandson, Justin, who is serving for 2 years as a missionary in Guatemala. However, we are all thankful that he is serving the Lord and we sent our love to him.

The joy of family far surpasses the joy of eating Thanksgiving dinner.

Counting our blessings and giving thanks to God

John, as patriarch of our family, calls us together each Thanksgiving for a special family night where we talk about the things we are thankful for and thank God for our blessings.  Each family takes part.

We listen to stories and testimonies…..

        We perform….

We teach each other…… we learn together………

Some have short attention spans….. but even the smallest take part.

We loved it when one year old Ellie lead us in  singing “Jesus wants me for a sunbeam”

We end our family night by thanking God for the blessings we have enjoyed.  This year are hearts were extra tender that we could all be together. We feel that surviving our car accident was a miracle and we are so thankful.

Yes…. family and giving thanks are the most important part of our Thanksgiving Holiday traditions.

We are just starting our Holiday season. I bet you have lots of fun family traditions. What traditions do you enjoy? I would love hearing about them.

Have a great week. Hugs, Grammy

Thanksgiving Thankfulness… post #2 today

I am doing 2 posts in one day…. Are you totally shocked???

I have never done that before.  I can usually only manage one post in a week… but today has been so wonderful I just have to share it with you.

Please…. come and join us for our thanksgiving dinner….

I have always loved our Thanksgiving Holiday. It comes close to being my favorite holiday…. I guess Christmas is my very favorite… but Thanksgiving is really special. We don’t have to worry about buying, wrapping and giving gifts. We just make good food, join together as family and friends and count our blessings. What is better than good food, family, friends and counting our blessings???

After smelling the turkeys cook for hours, we were excited when they were finally done….

and…. The carving could begin…

Ernie and Grampy carved away while Grammy made  gravy from the drippings.

Claire and Lonica helped Grammy light all the candles, put food out on the buffet tables… and…

…put the final touches on the tables.

Starving family made short work of the appetizers  while they were waiting for our dinner to start….right down to the last shrimp.

Then…just before Jordan and Yoda started growling with hunger…

Grampy asked a blessing on our food and offered our prayer of Thanksgiving… and we filled our plates with all our seasonal favorite dishes.

I was concerned that Loni might have a hard time eating with her mouth full of new braces…. but she managed just fine.

Everything looked beautiful and it tasted as good as it looked.

Whether you sat at the big people table…

…The young people table…or…

…or the tiny person table…. everyone had a great time. How wonderful that we could be together and be blessed with good food and pretty good health.

Our meal ended with pumpkin cupcakes and pies, pecan pies and apple pies made from Grampy’s apples from the orchard.  It was a lovely sweet ending to a lovely sweet day.

John and I are especially thankful to be here this Thanksgiving with our family. When we think about how close we came to being killed in our car accident last March, we are in awe of God. We know that this was a year of miracles for us….. Yes, indeed…. We have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving!!!

I hope that you have had a lovely day too.

David and his family went to have dinner with Marla’s family today. They will be back tomorrow and we will have instant replay of today’s dinner and a special family night conducted by Grampy. … so …. our holiday is not over yet!

I am sure that I will have more smiles to share with you soon.

Have a great weekend. Hugs, Grammy

Getting ready for Thanksgiving smiles

My heart is full of thanksgiving on this Day of Thanksgiving 2011.

My children that grew up in this house are here with their children.

What a joy…..what a blessing….. what a madhouse…..what fun!!!!

I’ve been getting lots of good help.

I woke up this morning to find Erin ,Loni, Claire and Cal scrubbing my ceramic tile kitchen floor.  I thought the  floor looked OK but you should see how much better they look now. I wonder if they would like to do the rest of the rooms that have tile floors????

Evan was a big help cleaning out my cabinets and emptying the dishwasher.

And of course, I have had endless help with the cooking.

Gracie, Evan, Davey and Emma……………….My first born, Lynell

Grampy shows the grandkiddos how to use his mom’s old food grinder to grind up the cranberries for the relish instead of using the food processor. They thought it was cool. Even Calan could make it work.

Mindy got one turkey into the smoker…

and Lynell and I put one into the oven…

 

They say that too many cooks spoil the broth…

…But I’m not worried about it. I love cooking with my precious girls and grandgirls.

Claire and Lonica have dressed up my everyday chairs ….

…in their Thanksgiving outfits….

My girls made me sit down and rest while they are finishing up the last minute cooking and table setting.

My home is full of the wonderful smell of turkey cooking…. and laughter….and toys…. and kids…..and…

I couldn’t be happier. I feel so blessed and so thankful.

I am wishing you all, where ever you are,  a wonderful day with much to be thankful for.

Hugs, Lura