Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving this year. I can see why people want to take turns doing this. It's fun to do things "your own way" but it's also a lot of pressure. My biggest worry was the turkey. It was ok. Not what I thought it would be ($20 in ingredients and it still tasted like just turkey) but it did the job in feeding everyone.

I was happiest with my centerpiece. I give credit to the crafty moms on Pintrest. Everyone needs to have a crafty friend when it comes to things like this.

I found some leaves 80% off at Hobby Lobby last week and used those for garland and stuffed them in an old vase. And then I cut some leaves off and glued them onto mason jars with candles inside. I liked them so much that I'm saving them for next years Thanksgiving.

Lucy made the Pilgrim hats. Again, credit to the crafty mom on Pintrest.

That punch? Doesn't look so good but it WAS so good. Again, you know who the credit goes to. I am writing down the recipe in case I forget.

2 gallon Apple Cider

1 bottle of caramel syrup

1 Tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice

I had to fill up the punch bowl twice, so I'm glad that everyone liked it. Or maybe everyone was just thirsty. It was pretty dry.

That is only about half of my nieces and nephews on our trampoline. Look at that thing sag. I was worried they would bounce right through. I'm glad everyone had fun though.

And then we had a puppy play date with Henry the dog that is with us for the week and our neighbor's dog Ruby. For those who love dogs, this was fun. (For those that didn't love dogs, they stayed upstairs, ha!)




Not everything went perfectly. I accidentally melted a whole thing of butter when I was trying to defrost it, so we had to use it as dip. No one seemed to mind. And the turkey was a major disappointment to me. But oh well.

I was happy it was over, no offense to anyone. It was just really exhausting. It left me thinking, who am I trying to impress? And why?? Really, who cares? All people want is to be able to eat and spend time with one another. Even though I knew it was silly, I couldn't help feeling the doldrums yesterday. I felt down, and I didn't know why.

Then Max said a very simple but heartfelt prayer that helped. I listened very carefully, maybe because it was something I needed to hear. Anyway, I think I can copy it down nearly word for word:

"Jesus, Thanksgiving was GREAT! The food was so good and I ate until I was stuffed. I loved seeing everyone and I'm glad they came. Jesus, I hope they know I really enjoyed it that they came to spend Thanksgiving with us. I hope we can do this every year at our house. Jesus, please let everyone know I'm really grateful they came."


Well, that is the point of Thanksgiving, right? Not about impressing everyone but being together. I know this and we all know it, but somehow we all get caught up in the frivolous things. So it was good. Our Thanksgiving was good. We had a lot of fun together.

But, sorry Max, I don't think we will be hosting this every year, lol.