Today’s post is a pictorial view of my Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful weekend – see for yourself!
Dad and Denise
Dads and the guys
Let me just comment about the last two pictures. Remember my cornucopias? I finished them by dipping them in melted chocolate then crushed walnuts. As is our norm, we had dinner at 1:00, so around 8 we had turkey sandwiches and for dessert….we took those cones and filled them with Turkey Hill Pumpkin Pie ice cream. Oh.My.Goodness. They were scrumptious! By the smiles on those men’s faces, I think I may have started a new family tradition!
How was your Thanksgiving? Start any new traditions in your family or did you carry on any old ones?
Happy Thanksgiving, friends! Today I’m re-posting from 2009 because I think of this particular Thanksgiving every single year.
I’ve been pondering past Thanksgivings. All holidays were special when I was growing up. There were certain foods and traditions that were a part of each special holiday, and I have many wonderful memories of the years when I was growing up. But when I think about my favorite Thanksgiving I think back to the year before I got married. I was in love; I think that had to be what set this Thanksgiving off from all others!
This was a first for me; I was hosting the dinner in my home – a 14′ x 70′ trailer, for my boyfriend (soon to be fiance’), and both sets of parents! The kitchen was so small that if I hoped to open the fridge during dinner or slip over to the sink during the meal, there was no way we could eat dinner in the kitchen. So I moved the kitchen table into the living room and turned it into my dining room.
Food network photo
I don’t remember the entire menu, but I know we had the essentials – turkey and mashed potatoes (thank goodness my mom came early to help me roast the turkey)! We also had green beans and a jello salad. I remember making my first ever yeast rolls. I was so proud that they rose to their clover shape! I’m not sure how they tasted, but they were pretty! I made gingerbread place cards for each place setting. They weren’t nearly as fancy as these, but they were cute and edible!
Everything was very simple. There were no fancy dishes – just the ones I’d picked up each week at the grocery store. My cloth napkins were ones I’d made myself with a couple yards of fabric. I served a simple sherbet punch and iced tea to accompany our meal.
There we all were, gathered in my little living room. I was giving thanks for God’s provisions for this insignificant first grade school teacher. Everything I had was so obviously a grace gift from my loving God. I was seated next to my husband-to-be, and with my godly parents who were the best parents a girl could have, and also with my future in-laws that had been so gracious to me.
That was twenty-nine years ago, and though I’ve had many special Thanksgivings since then, that one is the most memorable. It was the beginning of sharing my thanks to God beside the man with whom I would share my life. God’s been so faithful to us all these years.
This year as we bow our heads together, hands clasped, we will again number the grace gifts He’s given. One of those is each other. Thank you, Lord.
I’m helping out a little in our Sunday school program at my church and am teaching a class of the sweetest children. It’s always amazing to me how the Lord takes the simple lessons I’m teaching them and drives home a truth that I need to hear. It happened again last Sunday.
We were all reading in I Samuel 8 about the children of Israel demanding a king. God told Samuel to warn them about what would happen if they had a king ruling over them.
Their sons would be his warriors, his servants, his captains, his weapon makers
Their daughters would be his maids, cooks, bakers
Their fields would belong to the king
The king would take their servants, their sheep and donkeys
They would regret their choice, and will call out to God, but He will not hear them
Then my whole class read verse 19. After hearing the dire consequences the Israelite’s response was:
Nay; but we will have a king over us!
I had the children repeat the Israelite’s response with me. First we stood, folded our arms and stomped our foot while saying, “NO!” Then we pounded one fist on our other hand while saying, “WE WANT A KING!”
I talked to the children about their stubbornness in demanding something from God, even though they knew it was not good for them! Then the arrow came to my own heart.
How often I do the very same thing! When I read or hear the danger of sin in my life and I choose it anyway, I am behaving just like the king-demanding-Israelites, and God will give me what is not good for me in order to teach me and discipline me. Gossiping, slandering, being lazy, proud, or uncaring for the lost will all bring the consequences God warns about in His Word. Bitterness, anger or being deceitful are full of dangerous consequences. Having a faithless heart in God’s plans, worrying, planning and scheming my own actions are also sinful choices. It’s me pounding my fist into my palm and making demands that God lovingly warns about.
It’s my choice – will I heed God’s loving warnings and go His way, or will I stomp my foot in defiance and foolishness only to reap the costly consequences? The danger in saying “No” is that God will let me have my own way.But He loves me too much to let me go on stubbornly and sinfully disregarding His directives. He knows what is best for me! It may look like things are good for a while when I go my own way, but eventually I will reap from my sinful choices. God will not be mocked.
“Oh Lord, help me to lift my hands in surrender and say instead, “YES, I WILL OBEY!”
If there’s any area in your life not surrendered over to the Lord, hear His loving warning and obey. There are also blessed consequences for obedience!
Here we are at the beginning of Thanksgiving week! Woo Hoo! I love it! If you’re hosting company this year, before you get into a panic, let me encourage you to take a look over your kitchen today and make sure that you’re doing this one simple thing that will ease the work of putting any meal together. Here it is…
Create “stations” in your kitchen.
Let me explain. Take into account what you do regularly in your kitchen. Do you bake? Are there coffee or hot tea drinkers at your house? Does your family toast waffles or bagels for breakfast each day? Each of those activities needs a station for that task. Let me show you a couple examples.
Here’s a peek at my coffee station:
In the drawer under the coffee maker are the filters, the coffee bags and jars. On the counter beside it is the grinder, the carafe’ and the coffee scoop. In the cabinet above, the mugs are ready for action!
My baking station is in one area where the cookbooks are, as well as the utensils needed for baking.
In this are are all my measuring cups, biscuit cutters, pastry blender, rolling pin, mixers (hand mixer and Kitchen Aid), ruler for measuring dough length, measuring spoons, whisks, and salt. In the cabinet above are all my spices, herbs and baking soda and powder. My canisters are on the counter on the other side of my stove – about two steps away.
For your toaster station you’d have the toaster in the cabinet where an outlet is accessible. Add a small cutting board to slice the bagels or butter the toast. Knives for cutting or buttering should be within reach as well.
Even when you’re doing a special task like making mashed potatoes, do it in an area where you can gather everything together so you won’t have to be going back and forth.
Make sure your trash can is in an area close to your work space, or even keep a garbage bowl on your counter so you don’t have to walk over to the trash can every time you have to dispose of an empty can or egg shells.
Eliminate you steps and create work stations and I bet you’ll enjoy working in your kitchen a whole lot more!
What kind of stations have you created, or what ones will you set up?
When anyone walks into our homes, their senses give them a quick survey of the atmosphere. If it’s dark, gloomy, and smells of moth balls they may turn and run! However, if there’s a warm glow with light, and it smells fragrant and fresh, they’ll feel welcome.
I told you earlier this week about my sweet friend who keeps me supplied in the latest Yankee Candle products – well, this week she brought me a tart warmer. I love it, because its ceramic base is pretty, but it doesn’t jump out at you. There’s a little toggle plug on it that lights up (see below) to remind you it’s on, and the tart melts inside a plastic container, so you don’t have to mess with the melted wax in order to get it out.
The scent that is burning in mine is a pumpkin something-or-other, and it smells heavenly! No flames, or dangers that way. I have it sitting on my desk and it fills the house with its fragrance. I highly recommend these!
Yankee Tart warmer
Here’s what it looks like with the melted wax.
The tart melts into a plastic cup; no scraping the wax out!
I have told you all before that I have to have lots of light in my home. Curtains are opened first thing in the morning, as well as the front door so the sunshine can spill inside!
Now that it gets dark so early in the evening, I have lots of little lights burning all over the house. I had one dark spot that was a problem, and that was my foyer. There’s no outlet there, so I can’t plug in a lamp. I have burned candles on my foyer table when I have guests, but I don’t want to burn one all the time. I needed some kind of light. THEN IT HIT ME! LED lights that are on sale for Christmas will be perfect!
A LED candle in my foyer
These candles are really bright. They are what I have in the front windows of my house. I burn them all year long to light our house up on our country road. Whatever time you put the batteries in is when they’ll turn on each day and will burn for many hours – perfect for daylight savings time! I love how it brightened up the foyer.
Just the right amount of light!
If you need a light in a place where there’s no outlet, grab an LED candle now while the Christmas decor is out. It seems they sell out quickly, so grab them while you can! I got mine for $4 at Big Lots.
I’m a fanatic about light and smell in my home. What’s important to you about your home?
RefreshHer 