Thanksgiving- Better Late Than Never!

We have had such a neat few weeks with family from Texas and friends from South Carolina coming to visit! Hectic and crazy, perhaps, yet fun and overflowing with blessings too.


For Thanksgiving Dad drove up from Wichita Falls to join us for our feast. Though we have seen a lot of Dad in the last many years, it is never enough. Dad arrived on Tuesday before the kids got home from school. Milo adopted him right away. Unfortunately, with the culinary focus being Thursday's feast, I didn't cook a single meal except for Thanksgiving Dinner! That always seems weird to me, but there you go. Tuesday we ordered pizza.

Wednesday I had to work in the morning, so Dad went to the house where the kids were working on a list of chores, bringing along his laptop. While Bekah baked pies, Erin helped Dad set up a facebook account and Isaac taught him a thing or two about using the internet as well. Bekah did a lovely job with her pies: pecan, pumpkin, cranberry walnut streusel, apple, chocolate chess, and lemon chess- yum. (Erin and I assisted) That night we ordered Chinese take-out.


Thursday arrived at last and we cooked, roasted and baked until it all came together around 2 pm, whereupon we set to feasting- gratefully, of course. The star of the show was the turkey, surrounded by a supporting cast of cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, brulee'd sweet potatoes, corn, brussel sprouts, (overcooked- gack), green beans with artichoke hearts, homemade dinner rolls, from-scratch cranberry sauce and some pickled beets that should have been left in the fridge, (wrong recipe- yuck). Not everything was perfect, but having the family- those who were in-country- gathered around the table, was a blessing.


The next morning the kids- Isaac even- insisted on some Black Friday shopping. Too weak to resist, I took the girls, with friends, to hunt for clothing, while Dad and Jim took Isaac for a more manly outing to Cabela's. Home again for turkey sandwiches, then out for a drive through neighboring Lancaster County. We completed our Black Friday shopping at Brecknock Orchards with veggies and various jams and jellies. Further exploration found a covered bridge and a park along a lovely creek where we walked about and took some fun photos.




Dad set out for home early Saturday morning, probably still experiencing a turkey buzz, and fortified with more knowledge of his laptop and the internet than when he arrived.

Meanwhile, Bekah helped me convert most of the leftovers into a pair of sumptuous soups for our friends the Phillips, who were to arrive later that morning, and will be the subject of my next post!