It's Thanksgiving!

"It may be I am getting old and like too much to dwell
Upon the days of bygone years, the days I loved so well;
But thinking of them now I wish somehow that I could know
A simple old Thanksgiving Day, like those of long ago,"

"When all the family gathered round a table richly spread,
With little Jamie at the foot and grandpa at the head,
The youngest of us all to greet the oldest with a smile,
With mother running in and out and laughing all the while."

"I like the olden way the best, when relatives were glad

To meet the way they used to do when I was but a lad;

The old home was a rendezvous for all our kith and kin,

And whether living far or near they all came trooping in"

"With shouts of "Hello, daddy!" as they fairly stormed the place

And made a rush for mother, who would stop to wipe her face

Upon her gingham apron before she kissed them all,

Hugging them proudly to her breast, the grownups and the small."

Welcome to our Thanksgiving! Mama has been recovering for some time now in bed. Thus, with Thanksgiving and five overnight guests quickly approaching, Mikaela and I prepared with anticipation to create our first ever Thanksgiving dinner. Strengthened by the remembrance of the four original Pilgrim women who made the entire meal for the colony (if they did all that, surely we could do this!), we planned the menu, wrote out the shopping list, braved the crowds to purchase all the necessities (while staying under budget) and counted our blessings as we made stuffing and smashed our potatoes. We triumphed over minor calamities like lost recipes, broken potato mashers, and salty gravy to sit down at the table Thursday afternoon, exhausted but happy!

Our bee-yu-ti-ful turkey! Isn't it a thing of beauty? The most gorgeous meat I've ever seen! (Yes, I'm bragging!)

When's the food going to be ready? Great-Aunt Bev and Uncle Dan anxiously await the meal as the smells waft through the house! Uncle Dan wanted to make sure we had Pepto-Bismol before he sat down to eat--we assured him he would simply have to suffer.

Dad carves the turkey under the watchful eye of our cousin Danny and his son, Brayden.

The menu? Sausage and craisin stuffing, spiced sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, garlic and rosemary mashed potatoes, rolls, vegetables, broccoli, turkey, pumpkin, marionberry, and pecan pie, and buckeye cake. Hungry yet?

It was a blessing to get together with Mama's brother, Dan, his wife, our Aunt Linda, their son Danny, and his son Brayden and stepdaughter Charlotte--whom we had never met before. Aunt Bev rounded out our numbers and we had a wonderful time of talking politics, laughing, introducing them to Fireproof, and eating!

Every year, we go around the table and take three kernels of corn as a remembrance of the winter the Pilgrims received a ration of five kernels each day. Then, we say at least three things we are thankful for. The top blessings? God's providence, unmerited grace, and salvation, God's amazing provision, and wonderful family! In a year when our president made history by being the first president not to explicitly mention God in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, we made God the focal point of our day. From reciting Psalm 100 to praying together to learning more about godly William Bradford, it was a blessed day.

The sole picture of Mama, the photographer! She's goofing off at Susanna, who nabbed the camera!

Jonah and Brayden were inseparable buddies!

"Then laughter rang throughout the home, and, Oh, the jokes they told;

From Boston, Frank brought new ones, but father sprang the old;

All afternoon we chatted, telling what we hoped to do,

The struggles we were making and the hardships we'd gone through;"

The competition is on Thanksgiving night! Who will win the game? (-:

"We gathered round the fireside. How fast the hours would fly--

It seemed before we'd settled down 'twas time to say good-bye.

Those were the glad Thanksgivings, the old-time families knew

When relatives could still be friends and every heart was true."

Poetry from An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving by Edgar Alber Guest

Photos taken by Mama and Susanna (-: