Saturday, November 30, 2013

Friday, November 29

Our Thanksgiving celebrations have been slow and sweet.  Aaron let me get some much needed extra rest this morning, then we enjoyed some pumpkin muffins that Sarah made yesterday.  Thankfully, the pumpkin pies were the only food we made before we knew the US Navy wasn't coming, so we have four pumpkin pies to enjoy over the next few days. 

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I asked around for extra baking dishes when I thought we would have eight extra men, and Melody quickly loaned me two of her trays, the closest thing to 9x13 pans I could find.  I returned them last night with eggplant, Ramen noodles, and canned tuna as a thank you for her immediate willingness to loan out her dishes. 

Our Thankful turkey has grown lots of feathers in the last week.  I love watching my kids' personalities come out as they write a variety of things on the feathers.  We keep them from year to year, not to give the turkey a fuller tail, but to enjoy reading and sometimes deciphering the young handwriting (or scribbles). 

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After breakfast, we sat out on the porch and read Louisa May Alcott's "An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving", one of my favorite Thanksgiving books.  We read it aloud every year.  Then we began a game of hand and foot.  All six of us can play this one at the same time, and Sarah and I were way ahead by the time we needed to stop for lunch preparation.  We enjoyed our chicken, green beans, corn casserole, faux candied yams with marshmallows from a care package, watermelon, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin spice coffee.  Then, Sarah and I put so much space between us and the rest of the family that we called off the game before we even got to the fourth round.

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I didn't realize how much we needed a Sabbath, just a day to stay in the house and rest both brains and bodies, to laugh and play and focus on the many things God has given us.  What a gift!

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