A Thankful Heart~

I pray you enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving!

This is our last Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania...another bittersweet mix of emotions, but we are thankful for how God is leading us.

Our Thanksgivings in PA have been small and quiet.  I think we did travel down to NC for one Thanksgiving since we've lived here, but we have stayed put for the others.  Steve always invites any fellow grad students who don't have holiday plans to come over to our place for Thanksgiving...a very nice offer, but no one ever took him up on it...so it was usually just us. 

Can I confess that I loved having those small, quiet Thanksgivings?  Obviously, it would have been great to share with friends and/or family, but that's just not how it usually worked out.  And every year Thanksgiving became a small reprieve for our family...a rare four days off of work for Steve.  We cook a small turkey and a mix of sides, enjoy our fabulous meal, and take a walk.  We listen to Christmas music and play games with our kids.  We Skype with our families.  It's been nice having Thanksgiving in PA.


Steve has learned to enjoy it...but truth be told, he would rather be part of a big family gathering.  Big turkey, everyone bringing a side and having too many to choose from, Aunt Kathy's pies, kids playing with their cousins, parades and football on the TV, and maybe a nap.  That's how it was for him growing up...the big family all gathered together.  Our Thanksgivings spent in Albuquerque have been just that...and they are fun!

But they are very different from the Thanksgivings my family had.  My dad was in the Air Force when I was growing up, so we lived all over the U.S. and even in Saudi Arabia when I was young.  I never lived close enough to family to gather with them for holidays...it was always just my parents, my brother, and me...and we always had a great Thanksgiving.  We also never had turkey...my mom always cooked cornish game hens (you get your own baby turkey, she used to say) or a pork roast...and they were YUMMY!  I very fondly remember our Thanksgivings...thank you, Mom and Dad!

So, as you can read, Steve and I came from very different Thanksgiving experiences and traditions...it's been fairly easy for us to compromise and learn to enjoy each other's preferences.  Our kids have been very flexible with our eclectic mix of Thanksgiving experiences...big family gatherings in NM, smaller Thanksgivings spent in NC, and our quiet, tiny Thanksgivings spent in PA...we have much to be thankful for!

Here's a glimpse of what our Thanksgiving was like this year~


The girls helped make the cranberry sauce the night before...

Ta da!  Good job, girls...it was so yummy!

Steve took the cooking lead...I'm usually the sous chef for bigger dinners.  We enjoyed turkey, stuffing, baked butternut squash, sauteed green beans, and fresh-baked rosemary bread.  While Steve and I prepared dinner, the girls got the table ready.  Our white dishes are packed, so we were setting the table with our everyday stuff.  But the girls still wanted to make the table fancy...I just let them work on decorating it however they wanted...they asked us not to look at it til it was time to eat. Steve and I were even escorted to the table by Bella and Sophia...it was so fun.  Here's what they came up...I'd say it's fairly creative considering their limited resources.  Our cloth napkins and tablecloth are packed...apparently you can do a lot with dish towels, crochet hand towels, and hot pads :)

The feast is ready!

Gracia enjoyed her first taste of baby food (other than rice cereal)...peas...and she did pretty well :)

Thanksgiving peas~

She also giggled a lot...caught some on video...her older sisters sure do know how to make her smile and laugh :)



And we enjoyed a nice walk...the weather was beautiful~ 

Thanksgiving walk~

Lord, thank you so much for the wonderful Thanksgivings we've had in PA...and we thank you for our future Thanksgivings in TX.


I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful too~
Rach