Thanksgiving Day 2014

Thanksgiving Day was a nice day with family here.  We had Anthony, BJo (who came home Friday night last week), and Chase (came home Wednesday), and Brandon, Thomas and Michael with their families = 16 people.   Everyone helped with the food preparation and it was a delicious meal. We had a relaxing day, (to some it was almost to the point of boredom at times) but we were together and I loved it.

A highlight for the day was getting to talk to our missionary.  Ya!  This year in Connor's mission the missionaries being released before Christmas were allowed to call home on Thanksgiving.  :)  This was certainly a tender mercy for him and for us.   The Lord is watching over us and taking care of some of the little things that make such a big difference to us.  Connor will be home in 2 1/2 weeks! :)  A great Christmas gift!

I keep finding it hard to remember to take photos of family when we are together, and I'm blaming it on the fact that being together just makes me so happy that I forget to take a photo now and again. However, I can usually remember to take a picure of the tables since it's just the last step of preparation, so here are a few photos that help document part of our day.

The tables:

I had an idea a couple months ago ...
I thought these figurines would make a great Thanksgiving tablescape so I did some searching on ebay for a few of these things.  Most were very inexpensive, but this happened to cost more than any other set because it is so beautiful and a bit more delicate.  It is my favorite set!

I thought I would pair these things with some greenery, but I got rid of all my greenery at a yard sale this year and I hadn't purchased any to replace it, so I had to come up with a different idea.  I just started looking through what I had and came up with this.  It worked!

I had enough to put two sets of figurines on each table and this smaller set was on the back side of my favorite set shown above.

I didn't do a very good job of centering that photo did I?  I was kinda hurrying when I took these photos and it is really quite noticeable. OOOPS!

I loved the set of the older couple gathering their crops.  I loved the corn and the basket of potatoes they had gathered.  Whether gathering for a feast or for winter storage it fits the holiday beautifully.  I am grateful for the gardens we have in the area that provide such wonderful meals for us and for neighbors and friends that gather their food to share with others.  We have been the recipients of such beautiful bounty.

Another favorite was of this couple who had a goose and a chicken at their side.  They seem so thankful for their bounteous blessings of food and of providing for themselves.  I am grateful for a husband who has provided for us so well over the past 34+ years.  We have much to be grateful for.

Auger, Akleigh, and Elsie helped set the tables.  They seemed to enjoy every minute of it.  It created a beautiful setting.  I am partial to it partly because the table cloths are the cloths we used at our reception in February 1980.  I have had them sitting in my hope chest all these years and wanted to use them again.  It seemed that this year they were the perfect addition to the look I was trying to create.  My heart loved the look and feel of the day!  (even if some of the colors did clash a bit)

I saw that Chase took a photo of the buffet table that we had in the kitchen.  After bringing out so many other dishes to wash I decided to be frugal with my dish washing time and just serve the food out of the pots and pans they were prepared in.  Ug!  Sorry!   But, there were no complaints!  :)

Everyone helped make the food and it was very yummy stuff.  We have some great cooks in the family.  Chase also took this photo, and then apologized to me.



One last photo for the day - 
Elsie loved to help push her grandpa wherever he needed to go.

Thanksgiving is now in the past and we look forward to the wonderful Christmas season ahead. 

May our hearts turn to Him, our Savior, Jesus Christ

at this most wonderful time of year

and remain with us forever.



found here

Happy Thanksgiving!

This was definitely a unique Thanksgiving for us. 

We started with a somewhat lazy morning, just putting a chicken (instead of a Turkey, because we didn't want so much turkey left over) in the oven and going to blood draw.

There were not very many people in the clinic today - even fewer than Saturdays and Sundays.  That's good!  We hope everyone else was off having a wonderful holiday.

The shuttle didn't run today so we walked both ways today - first time walking both ways since transplant, so we are happy that it was do-able.  We even took the stairs here at the PGH too.  That's good!  Terry is feeling okay.  He is always under the influence of nausea medicine so he is doing better that way, but still spends most of his day resting.

It was a foggy day, so foggy that we couldn't see the Space Needle like we normally can. The air was chilly, but not terrible.  It was really a nice walk and it made us feel good to be outside and strong enough to make the walk both ways.  That's good! 

We see some beautiful blossoms on our walk.  The beauties of nature always make me happy.  And these last few blossoms hanging on this fall are very beautiful.  I'm so glad they were there today. It made us happy.  That's good!

 

This next plant is lovely for fall.  I admire them every time I walk past them.  If I could have put fresh flowers or plants on the table today I would have used some of these.  I need to find out what they are and see if I can grow them at home so I can use them another year, and other years after that.

They are a prettier than this photo shows, and there is another group of them that is larger and quite lovely.

We are happy to be together today, but we miss our family.  Surely we would eventually have a Thanksgiving with just the two of us when all of our children are married and off to their other side of the family, but that will be many years down the road.  This seems a bit early for us.  I guess we are practicing for it so we can be ready when it comes more often. 

We heard a lady in the clinic today talking about their family gathering.  They invite all of his side of the family and all of her side of the family.  We don't know how many children they have, but we did hear that it is a small group when everyone is together.  "It's a nice small group!" is what she said.  Then she expounded - her husband just has his mother and a sister, and she had just her mother and two aunts.  They had more together than we had here this year, but they have fewer than we have with just our children.  I really don't know that kind of life.  Never had it.   And, for me, That's good!


There were many new and different experiences as I prepared the food today. 
- Chicken instead of turkey was the first.
- Preparing the meal in small amounts was really odd.
- I made the smallest amount of Lime Pear Delight I've ever made before (1/4 recipe) and there wasn't enough pear and cream cheese in the blender to make this blender work, so I added the whipping cream to it to whip it in the blender.  I was concerned if it would work, but it did.
- Deciding what to make and if it would be something Terry would be able to eat without getting nauseous was a big concern, especially since there is such a combination of things on the plate.
- Using only 2 sauce pans to cook 5 different foods was challenging, still trying to keep the first things warm by the time the last things got done.
- No pretty bowls ..., (the word pretty didn't even need to be there) ...,  trying to figure out what to serve the food in was interesting.  Disposable is what I have, so that is what I used.
- No décor!  Just the table!
- No rolls because I just couldn't fit it into my hectic Wednesday.
- No pies because I wasn't going to buy a pie (cause they just aren't good tasting to us) and I wasn't able to make one yesterday and the oven was full today until after the chicken was done and then it was just not something we thought we needed to do.  Maybe another day.

Other than that our meal was similar to the traditional Thanksgiving meal we usually have. Here is how it looked.

Not beautiful, but it tasted good and Terry was able to have some of everything.  That's good!  (Well, he did choose to not have the cranberry sauce.)  He was feeling well enough to eat a good meal, and That's good!

All in all ..., it's been a good day!  We hope yours was too! 

Happy Thanksgiving!



A Happy Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving day!
It always feels best when our harvest is complete by Thanksgiving, and our personal harvest is complete.  Great to celebrate!

We had plenty of food for the weekend.

 



 

The table was set with things that reminded me/us of our parents and extended family.  The gold butter plate (in the center of the upper photo) is one from Terry's parents, and the yams are similar to what she made after their mission to Tennessee.  My parents gave us the goblets many years ago for Christmas, and the little green filled cups are a jello salad recipe my mom makes and we all love - Lime Pear Delight.  We love family!

 

We had some great family time.

(I didn't get good enough photos of the family. They were waiting on me to take the photos and I was in too much of a hurry and the photos I did take didn't turn out very nicely.  Then my batteries died when I tried to take photos of them playing games. Oh Bother!  But the company was great!

 

Auger wanted a photo of his overalls - they are a pair of overalls that our boys used to wear.  The hooks were broken so I replaced them with different hooks, but they wouldn't fit down over the button enough to stay put, so they wrapped some rubber bands around them to help them stay connected.  It worked and he was so happy.

 

 

We missed half of our family (12 here and 12 unable to attend), and look forward to being with them all sometime in the future.

We are lovin' their blogs with the updates and photos.  :)

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

We are now wishing you a Merry Christmas!

(don't those two holidays flow together nicely!)

Then on to Valentines Day - ahhh! lovely!

Then Easter!

(my four favorites!)

 

Okay, I'm not trying to rush things - just sayin' what a great stretch of holidays we have, that remind us of the important things in life ..., even of life itself ...,

 

I am truly grateful for my family and for our Savior!  

... yes! ... lovely!



Family Gatherings

Spending time with family is wonderful! That's what we did yesterday. We shared some food and some fun and some stories and some smiles. I am grateful for these special occasions that gather us together.
The sad part is that even though many are gathered together we still miss several other family members who were unable to come.

A WISH!

We wish you all a
Happy Thanksgiving Day!


(Image from A Step in the Journey)

What To Do First

Priorities are hard to decide sometimes. I was going to do my best to get it straight this year but it seems that many things are always getting left undone. I have become accustomed to that and am learning to adjust. With a long list of things to do, which includes cleaning up after the passing year and preparing for the new year, I chose to take a look at the things we are thankful for.

A couple weeks before Thanksgiving our family decided to write down something we were thankful for each day for the rest of the year. Not everyone participated daily like I had hoped, but it was a fun read for me this morning as I looked at the things that were written.
Each paper was rolled up, put into a jar, and not looked at until I read them today. I tossed them in the garbage after I read them and then decided I should keep them for a little while longer.



Here is a sampling of what was written on our papers, but not in any order, because they were dumped out and scrambled. Some were written more than once in our jar, but are listed only once here (hopefully :):

family history
warm blankets
nativities
postal service
automobiles
bandages
Christmas
puzzles
general conference
families
bishopric
decorations
fireplace
our farm
teeth
books
pots and pans
living prophet/Pres. Monson
relief society
cookies
school
children
scriptures
clothes
lights
grandparents
communication / words / etc.
grandchildren
internet
pretty wrapping paper
life
shoes
orthodontist
game consoles
support from everyone
brains
missionaries
money
newsletters
muscle
dentists
names
indoor plumbing
home
friends old & new
doctors
bed
peace & happiness
snow
wife
sweaters
blankets
the Holy Ghost / Comforter
trees
food
cameras
socks
my husband
The Hebdon's
Alma
paper
Book of Mormon
phones
movies
animals
pen
body
photos
what Christ did for us / how He died for us
blogging
water
Bishop Allred
technology
chocolate
chicken
visiting teachers
mom
gifts / giving
scrapbooking
insulation
church
sports
testimony
Jesus Christ
tables
parents
cooking utensils
holidays
patriarchal blessings
warm house
braces
patriarchal blessing from grandpa
fire
each member of our family was listed individually, including some aunts and uncles and cousins

The bishopric gave each family a gratitude book for Christmas. I'm going to write this list in that and we'll continue to add to it. We'll also add some stories or experiences that help us realize how grateful we are for ... whatever we are thankful for. Surely it will be a great year if we are trying to be aware of our many blessings and recognize whom they all come from.

I am surely grateful that we had a safe trip to and from Rexburg, for the family we saw there (and left there) and for BYU-I .... I am grateful that all was well when we arrived home again.
This is Chase's first day of college and I surely hope to be grateful that it was a good one! We love you Chase!
Now on with my list of things to do .... I'll get them done - eventually!

Thanksgiving 2009

Over the river and thru the woods, to grandmothers house we went...

The food was great and we enjoyed it ...

But,

"It's not so much what's on the table that matters, as what's on the chairs."

.

We enjoyed the company, played games, and visited with each other...

.

We gave mom and dad their Christmas gifts, because we weren't going to be together for Christmas...

.

AND, we learned how to put a straw thru a potato... (can you?)

.

We had a great Thanksgiving!

THANKSGIVING!

We had a great Thanksgiving - Great times with family and great food. It was all great fun!

We missed the family that wasn't able to come, and look forward to another time when we can gather together with them.

We are truly grateful for all that we have been blessed with. Thanks to all you add such joy to our lives!