I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know we did. Last year I just had a terrible, terrible time. My grandmother had just passed away, I missed our friends and family and I spent too much time thinking about what I’d lost and not enough time grateful for the many blessings we still had. This year has been different. Since my husband has decided that we will indeed be staying where we are, I have felt as though a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I can’t even describe the difference it has made.
We celebrated our many blessings with a simple Thanksgiving dinner. I was thankful for many things, but especially thankful that I had managed to cook the turkey without burning it! My oven burns everything! It’s not me. Really. It is my oven. I jokingly called it the turbo oven because it managed to cook our pretty large turkey in under two hours flat. Bet your oven can’t do that. But then, I bet you don’t want it to either!
I was impressed when my oldest son asked to say the prayer over our food since it was Thanksgiving. It began lovely and really blessed my heart as he shared his…until he thanked the Lord that he had such a loving family. Hmmm…he just had to add a little rub since he’d been squabbling with his siblings earlier in the day. Let’s just say that the prayer was followed by a few moments of uncomfortable silence. Of course, he certainly thought he was being cute.
The kids had really wanted to celebrate the holiday by inviting friends over. So Monday I sent out an email. We invited all our friends and panicked when four families RSVP’d that they’d be over for desserts and light snacks.
With the prospect of a houseful of guests, my husband and I went on a frantic search for furniture. We went to new showrooms and found out it would take 3 to 8 weeks for the furniture to be delivered, stopped at a few furniture consignment shops and couldn’t find anything that we were interested in or wanted to pay the price they were asking, and finally on a whim stopped at a thrift store that I rarely visit. We hit the mother lode! We found a wingback recliner chair that my husband loved, a couch which I covered and a huge artificial Christmas tree for just over $100! I was thrilled!
The kids and I spent all day Wednesday shopping, cooking, and preparing for our visitors. I had selected several recipes from the Family Fun website. I love their ideas! Here are the recipes that I selected:
Pilgrim Pie- a favorite!
Cranberry Ice Cream Pie- creamy, smooth and almost too good!
Cherry Cream Cheese Pie
Easy Fruit Dip served with strawberries, grapes and fresh pineapple.
Pilgrim Hat Cookies- which Phyllis shared at All Things Beautiful.
I bought a Pumpkin Pie and a Cherry Pie
Veggie Tray and Dip
Easy Sweet and Sour Meatballs- yummy and oh, so easy!
Chili Cheese Dip served with Frito scoops- think I’ll skip this one next time.
Chicken Chile Cheese Cups- absolutely delicious!
The kids were incredible helpers, it’s so nice to have older kids! They wrapped the plastic ware in white napkins and tied them with a yellow bow. My daughter whipped up a batch of Pilgrim Pies by herself while I prepared the Cranberry Ice cream Pies. My son built an air soft fort in the backyard and they ran the vacuum and cleaned their bathroom. We actually had a lot of fun preparing for our guests.
We may not have been able to travel to Ohio to see our family, but we are thankful for everyone that was able to join us at our new house and help us feel a little bit more at home here in Alabama!
The kids can’t wait until next year!
Glad you had a happy Thanksgiving with guests. We spent the day with Jeff's family.
ReplyDeletestopping by from the hip homeschool hop, glad you had a great Thanksgiving!
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