Our time was mostly spent enjoying Benjamin, resting, and of course, cooking and eating! All of us (all four adults anyway :) took turns concocting delicious foods for our Thanksgiving feast - we enjoyed Dad's special citrus-infused turkey and homemade cranberry sauce and Mom's amazing chicken-and-dressing (I paid careful attention so that I will be able to take up this torch :) Will made corn casserole (thank you Paula Dean for blessing us with that recipe!), and the meal was rounded out with green beans, coleslaw, deviled eggs, and sweet potatoes, with pecan pie and pumpkin cookies for dessert.
We agreed that it was our family camping experience which allowed us to prepare such a magnificent meal in such a small kitchen :) As we enjoyed the fruits of our labor, Benjamin slept soundly through his first Thanksgiving dinner...
Each year, celebrating Thanksgiving reminds me of the multitude of things I have to be thankful for, but this year, I have been especially overwhelmed by God's graciousness to us. Last Thanksgiving was such a special holiday, with sweet memories of harvesting thousands of pecans in our backyard, soaking a 20 lb. turkey in a 5 gallon bucket in the basement overnight , and a table FULL of food to share with Mom, Dad, and Mattie. But if you had told us last year how different our lives would be in just twelve short months, I don't think we would have believed you. We had a vague idea that change was coming ... of course Will would be graduating, and we were wanting to have a baby, but holy cow! God has been faithful in each and every detail - a healthy pregnancy, Will's job, a (relatively) smooth cross-country move, the blessings of church families who have stood beside us both in TN and now in NY, families who have supported us in countless ways, and of course, an absolutely beautiful baby boy (who is now sleeping through the night pretty consistently!!)
There just aren't words to express how thankful I am for all He has done!
The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad!
Ps. 126:3
Ps. 126:3
That's interesting Valerie that you said you paid extra close attention to how your mom made the dressing this year because I did the same thing with my mom while she made her dressing. (I wonder if they both use the same recipe?) Mom said Grandma Lois never had an "official" recipe - she had just always went by what "looked right". Before she got sick, Mom tried to nail her down on at least estimates for her dressing recipe. Mom then tried to fine-tune it by comparing it to other dressing recipes to get the ratios right. As she made her's this year, I quizzed her about each little step and made detailed notes. And the end result was, as Grayson would put it "heavendy" (he still uses a "d" in the place of his "l"s). I probably should try harder to correct this but I can't stand the idea of not ever hearing him say "I dub you Mommy" again :)
ReplyDeleteOh... meant to thank you for Benjamin's birth announcement - so precious! We have it proudly displayed on our fridge!
ReplyDeleteHey Shannon! Hope yall had a great Thanksgiving - Grayson is so precious! It will be fun to treasure all those sweet moments when Benjamin starts talking! Mom doesn't really have a recipe for her dressing either, but it always turns out awesome! We'll see if I adequately understood the process! :)
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