Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving

They came, they ate, they visited, they left, and they all had a wonderful time. Watching Dennis play with his cousins Laine and Emily, all of them taking turns diving into the ball pit and laughing hysterically, was just priceless. Everyone had such a good time, and my house hasn't looked this nice in a long time!

The turkey was perfect, very juicy and flavorful, and I haven't had any reports of illness from anyone. We had four different pans of dressing to choose from (so I guess I could have gotten away with not making any)! We were overrun with food. We are still overrun with food! I'm eating less these days, and we have so many leftovers. I'm going to freeze as much as I can for later. Just about the time I got all the food put away, everyone left except for Dave and Ellen, and they stayed to help clean up and to play games and enjoy time with us. The kids loved getting to play together more, but we could tell they were completely worn out from the holiday. They started tiny pushing wars, and Dennis got his feelings hurt a couple of times. It's always so hard for me to see his little face turn into the perfect example of the tragedy mask, with those huge tears falling from his eyes and his little chin trembling. It just melts my heart. He gets over it quickly, though, and goes right back to playing. Chloe helped me clean up, bringing me all kinds of things and helping Dennis keep up with his juice cup. She looked so cute today, with her hair done up in pigtails. It finally came to me who she looks like. With her hair up in the tiny pigtails and the big blue eyes, she's nearly an exact replica of Cindy Lou Who from the Grinch cartoon.

After supper, when it was so pleasant outside, we took the kids out into the yard and ran them around. They chased each other around for quite awhile, running down the driveway and chasing their shadows, cast by the giant streetlight in front of the house. They loved being outside, even if it was after dark. And we liked all the exercise of running off some of the meal.

It was a wonderful day, and we have so much to be thankful for. We are very very blessed. As a matter of fact, I wanted everyone to think about their own blessings today. Uncle Steve gave a wonderful blessing for the meal that talked about being thankful for what we have and what our nation has. My thanksgiving decorations were very non-traditional--not a turkey or pine cone or pumpkin to be seen. I used red, lime green, and turquoise cards and wrote out the liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer, one phrase on each card, and each card also featured at the top a giant letter. Put together in order, the cards spelled g-i-v-e-t-h-a-n-k-s, and gave the entire liturgy. I also put the Great Thanksgiving prayer on one table, and the other two tables featured placards (in picture frames, on striped paper with the above colors) that said give thanks on one and be thankful on the other. We also wrote out bible verses about giving thanks on cards and scattered those on all the tables. It was very simple (and free), and I was very pleased with the effect.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and had much to be thankful for. I am so grateful for such wonderful friends and a wonderful family, and my heart is just full of happiness with the blessing that is my son. Thank you, Lord, for everything.

1 comment:

DaNella Auten said...

lol u always did throw a good party!