I want to wish each and every one of you a very happy Thanksgiving Day!
We got up bright and early this morning, and Rob has already finished cooking the turkey on his barbecue. He has a ham going out there, now.
We’ve got stuffing, vanilla rosemary maple glazed sweet potatoes and of course, green bean casserole ready to pop into the oven to finish warming. The sweet potatoes will have maple candied walnuts on top, and I was delighted to find gluten-free fried onions to put on the green beans.
An apple pie with streusel topping awaits. The table is covered with trivets and pot holders waiting for all the great food and goodies the family will bring.
The house is spotless, thanks to the family members who came yesterday and helped clean. The table in the garage is out from it’s load of clutter it carries between holidays and looks pretty with a freshly ironed tablecloth. (Thanks, guys!). There are chairs in every nook and cranny around the house. All we need now are the guests, and they should start arriving before too long. It’s shaping up to be a wonderful day, full of family and friends. Although we will miss the ones who cannot be here, they will be in our thoughts on this day, especially. We have much to be thankful this year.
Rob and I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to each of you and your families on this day. I’m sure there are as many different ways of celebrating as there are people in this country, but I know every one of us has a lot to be grateful for. I love having a day where I can take a moment and reflect on all the blessings the Lord has brought to me this year. Have a wonderful day!
Happy Thanksgiving. Have a wonderful day. I am ready for bed after the last few days of cooking and cleaning. Tomorrow is my favorite part, leftovers!
We had both turkey and ham, lots and lots of salads, side dishes, African food, and an entire table of dessert, since my oldest daughter needed to de-stress last night and stayed up baking until midnight! Believe it or not, there is only about 2 cups of turkey here, and a few slices of ham…..they took me seriously when I said to take lots home. I’m so glad. It would have been very overwhelming to have all that in my fridge—and now no one needs to cook tomorrow unless they want to–our goal as well as yours:)
Your meal looks delicious… Happy Thanksgiving to you all x
Thank you. We had a great day–tired, stuffed and happy:). Ready for a good night’s sleep!
What a great picture of the two of you! Happy Thanksgiving!
Thank you! I was pleased with how it came out, too. Patsy did a great job with the camera phone:)
Happy Thanksgiving, Becky! Such a wonderful photo of the two of you.
Thank you! I hope yours was as lovely as mine ended up being:)
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! After traveling down to Los Angeles, we had a last-minute freak out when my poor sister-in-law went down with the flu and a 104-degree fever the night before Thanksgiving. Since they were hosting, they had to cancel. My mom managed to get a reservation at an Italian restaurant for the 7 of us who were left and not exposed to the virus. It was a little strange having Italian food for “Turkey Day” but we were happy to just be together! We are counting our blessings and thankful for family.
I hope you had a beautiful day with your family and friends. Your food looks delcious!
My goodness! Your poor sister-in-law, and what flexibility the rest of you had to practice:). I guess it just goes to show that it’s about the people, not the location that makes a good holiday, but I’m sure it was bittersweet because you were missing your family that was sick. I hope you ended up getting a tiny vacation from the whole thing—a little holiday road trip, maybe:). No dishes to wash…. and hopefully you can see that part of the family before too long when they recover.
Sounds like you had a wonderful Thanksgiving – surrounded by loved family and friends! And your meal looks wonderful! Had the four of us for the meal (myself, husband, daughter, and her boyfriend) then daughter and boyfriend went to spend time and a meal with his dad. Very quiet afternoon so would have enjoyed all the noise at your house. To bad we live half a continent away from each other.
Totally understand your oldest daughter with her desire to bake as a way to de stress. I also bake when I am stressed then I become more stressed when I don’t know what to do with everything that I baked!
Patsy did a very good job on taking the picture of you and Rob. The two of you look very happy together. Did Rob lose more weight? He looks like he has.
We did have a hive of activity, that’s for sure. It would have been fun to add a couple more, but you might have had to sit on top of the piano:). This house is quite small, but you know, it didn’t feel that way–just full of people I love. In fact, my friend, Harnet, and I were marveling at how so many fit in without feeling uncomfortable.
My Abbie works a lot, and had a stressful work week (just sick people, causing extra work for her, etc.) and boy did we benefit! She has the gluten-free, dairy-free, some sugar-free, desserts down to a science. My nephew made a lemon-meringue pie, I had made an apple one, my sister made merangue cookies, and fudge…you see how it went! I ate WAY too much, and will freeze a few leftovers to get them out of sight, out of mind. Most went home with people. Because, sadly, they were not calorie-free:) :). But, it’s so novel for all of us “special-needs eaters” to be able to just have it all…..so fun to try one of everything!
And, yes, as of Monday, Rob dropped another 10 lbs in the last month, between visits to the primary care doctor he sees monthly. So, he’s up to 60 lbs now, in all. We had hoped that it would really make a difference in his hip pain, but it really hasn’t. In fact, he is worsening in his ability to walk around. He’s been taking Michaela (autistic niece) down to the pool twice a week and stretching out and waving his arms around in the water a lot, things like that. She loves to play in the water and it’s exercise for her–so win-win. We even made it down an extra time this past weekend–it all helps. He does the physical therapy exercises they gave him, the best he can in the shallow pool, since he cannot get back out of the deep one as there is no access ramp or steps, just a ladder. (It’s an old YMCA, slated for complete tear-down and a re-build some time next summer). Then, he gets in the hot tub, which feels good. He’s on the right track towards the surgery he needs to have, but it’s just going to take a while longer to get there, losing the weight rather slowly and steadily, as the doctor wants him to do. I’m super proud of how hard he’s working at this–it’s not easy for him, but he’s doing it! His daily calorie count is pretty low to even lose at this rate.
Becky, I had trouble signing in so if you have multiple comments, delete the extras.
Always glad to hear from you, but this is the only comment that went through this time. Bummer!
Thank you for the update about Rob. He is looking good and I can tell he is still losing weight. You two lovebirds look so good together…right before you dig into the turkey! It is impressive the way you provided food for people with special diets. So many times I have attended meals and there was not one single thing there I could eat. Taking my lunch has been a way of life.
Your Thanksgiving reminded me of past year’s celebrations when we had many people. The walls of a home full of love expand and provide room for everyone. This year was the first time our family was not together and we missed each other. We learned to adapt and had a wonderful time.
I shared the story of this year’s celebration:
http://getmetothecountry.blogspot.com/2018/11/thanksgiving-lemon-pie.html
Jeannie@GetMetoTheCountry
I love a challenge and cooking for our family is certainly that!!! My sister said we have turned “high maintenance!”
I have a very good friend who taught me how much it means to have food that one can eat. Years before it was popular to be gluten-free, she needed to eat that way. She’s also allergic to many, many other things. Her daughter was good friends with one of mine, and since the daughter ate that way, I quickly learned from her mother how to cook that way. When I saw the events they attended, even ones with close family, and had nothing they could eat, it broke my heart. I learned through her example how to cook this way and boy did it come in handy when one by one our family members fell to needing special diets!
I wish you were near. I guarantee I could make you food that you could eat, that tasted good, all thanks to the lessons I learned years ago from my friend and the practice I’ve had since!!!
I wish you were closer also!
🙂
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, Becky! It sounds like you all had a lovely day and meal. Being together with family and friends, sharing good food that was lovingly prepared, is what it’s all about, isn’t it? Not the size of the house. I’m thankful for the many blessings we’ve received.
Thank you. We did have a lovely day. It didn’t feel rushed or stressful or crowded. That’s my idea of a good time:)
Great photo of you two.
And I have to say, I’ve always lived in ‘small’ houses, usually ones built in the 60s. I loved both houses because i used every square inch of space, all the time. I could just picture your overflow dining room. Sounds like a wonderful celebration.
This house was built in 1948. I think the expectation at that time was for a family to live in the house, but have a garden out back for food, hence the 1/3 acre lot. We are so grateful for that extra garden space.
We use the 1-car garage for storage and overflow. Although there was a table out there, and 2 stuffed easy chairs, I was chuckling to see that only about 5 people were out there. Still it is a huge blessing for our autistic son and the love of his life to have a quiet place to be out of the commotion. My autistic niece could have stretched out on my bed, before uncle took it over, since she is recovering from getting her wisdom teeth pulled, but she chose to be out and about most of the time. The other 15-17 were all on the couch, at the table that was snuggled up to the fireplace (no fire yesterday), on the chairs that were here and there, with a couple people spilling over into the adjoining dining/kitchen area. That living area MIGHT be 10′ x 12′. It was a wonder there was room for the food! Later in the afternoon, they spread out a bit–once Rob had to stretch out because of his hip, several just wandered into the room to visit with him–we were joking it was his “receiving” room:). They are good sports.