•7:51 AM
"Studies have shown that turkeys that have been bowled with are the juiciest, most tender birds around."
Such was said to me by one of my childrens' AWANA leaders as we happily shouldered our newly won turkey and headed for the door.
Our children had participated in the annual Turkey Bowl and had a great time. At the end of the evening, there were about ten turkeys to be auctioned off, and Little Son won one of them. Actually, they are not turkeys, but 4 pound turkey breasts, which is even better.
So that is what we are going to have tomorrow. It will be a quiet, simple Thanksgiving here, just the four of us. With the standard fare: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy, carrots, green bean casserole (okay - I can see you rolling your eyes at this one. But guess what? I never had green bean casserole, or sweet potato casserole, ever in my life until sometime after we were married and I visited DH's aunt for Thanksgiving. My family never ate that stuff), cranberries, turkey, and pumpkin pie.
Now, speaking of MY family, I must first say that most of my family celebrates Thanksgiving at the heavenly banquet hall these days, and have for many years. I do have two brothers, though, who live up north, and I know their traditions have changed a lot over the years.
But growing up, our family really went overboard at the Thanksgiving table. The turkey was generally over 20 pounds, with three turkey plates carved up for the table - one for whitemeat, one for dark meat, and another plate for legs, then stuffing, mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes (not casserole), then carrots, a separate bowl of creamed carrots, french cut green beans (not casserole), creamed onions, mashed turnips (mmmmmmm!), jellied cranberry in the shape of a can, and a choice of fruit cocktail or tomato juice before the meal. Also nuts, celery sticks, and that's all I can remember. Then there were the pies - basically apple and pumpkin. I think I remember mince pie a few years, too.
Are you totally bored now? Well don't be, because this is the best part of the post. The part where I think about how blessed and thankful I am to live in the most blessed nation on earth! How thankful I am for an incredible husband who is quietly faithful in a self-effacing way, 365 days a year, and makes for a very calm and secure family life. How thankful I am for two miracles in our lives: Little Son, who we met inside an orphanage in Ho Chi M*nh C*ty, and who is growing up as an amazingly happy, secure, healthy, and confident boy, and yes, he was born that way. If you can picture a confident, sure-of-himself, little guy, that was Little Son as an infant, and that is him now. And Baby Girl, who was cared for so lovingly in Se*ul, South K*rea by a special foster mom, and who arrived here a sweet and loving baby girl, still very much attached to her foster mom, but loving as ever toward us and her big brother, from day one. She is growing up to be a bright, beautiful, and affectionate big girl, who is the world's best sharer, and has been ever since she was a toddler. And she still adores her big brother. I could go on, thankful for all my friends, my home, a sweet doggy, the fact that we feel financially secure in these questionable times due to being completely out of debt (except for a very small mortgage). But these are all temporal blessings. The biggest blessing of all is the one that can never be taken away. The gift of complete safety and security throughout eternity for ---- now, all of our family ---- courtesy of Jesus Christ. It doesn't get any better than that!
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5 comments:
I have had adoption on my mind lately and it touches my heart when you write about your children. What a blessing to have children in the home, whatever the number and however they came to us. Is there a better life than leading little ones to God? I just don't think so. Happy Thanksgiving, my friend.
Amen, friend!
You are right; there IS a lot to be thankful for. Hope you and yours had a happy Thanksgiving with that bowling ball-- er, turkey breast. I have never heard of turkey bowling. Do they really use the turkey breasts as bowling balls? (Don't laugh at me.)
RYC- It could be that your google reader is set to pick up posts less frequently than mine and thus picked up the edited version. ? I don't know; I am really new to this whole reader thing. All I know is that AFTER I made the edit (less than 2 hours after the original post), I checked my feeds and it had my post in its original form. I had figured that anyone *checking* their feed after I edited would get the edit, but I didn't, so it must just be that it picks it up every hour or whatever, regardless of how often it is checked. Hmm. Not a big deal were it not for the fact that I so frequently edit!
This was a beautiful post. Your children are beautiful. It would be really wonderful if every child in the world could be welcomed into a family where they could be so loved.
Amen!
Turkey bowling sounds comical and fun.
I laughed at your "jellied cranberry in the shape of a can". LOL. That's still the way my family prefers it.