Thanksgiving

Warning: To all my loyal fans, all seven of you...this will be a long post with photo overload.
I'll begin with Thanksgiving. We had a very lovely day with family and are so very grateful for our many blessings! The girls helped me prepare a delicious dinner the day before and in spite of that, we had a very relaxing family day. Thanksgiving day, my parents came to our house for dinner around noon. Mom even surprised us by bringing green bean casserole and a couple of salads. Quite some impressive progress for a lady recovering from a stroke. Not to forget Rick's family, his mother texted him early and he replied with a phone call, then later in the day he also got to talk to his dad. It's sad, but seems like one or the other side of a family usually lives at a distance. We try to stay as involved as possible. Now days we don't have the cost of long-distance phone bills and that is a blessing indeed! It's easy to get busy, but especially with what I've experienced with my own family in recent years, I try to encourage Rick to stay in close contact.

 

Thanksgiving morning coffee with Jesus. Oh, and Matthew Henry was there too. At least his words were. He's still awaiting the great resurrection.

 



 

"Fear thou not, for I am with thee, not only within call, but present with thee; be not dismayed at the power of those that are against thee, for I am thy God, and engaged for thee. Art thou weak? I will strengthen thee. Art thou destitute of friends? I will help thee in the time of need. Art thou ready to sink, ready to fall? I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness, that right hand which is full of righteousness,
That God will strengthen their hands, that ...is, will help them: “I will hold thy right hand, go hand in hand with thee” he will take us by the hand as our guide, to lead us in our way, will help us up when we are fallen or prevent our falls; when we are weak he will hold us up - wavering, he will fix us - trembling, he will encourage us, and so hold us by the right hand, Psa_73:23. 2. That he will silence their fears: Saying unto thee, Fear not. He has said it again and again in his word, and has there provided sovereign antidotes against fear: but he will go further; he will by his Spirit say it to their hearts, and make them to hear it, and so will help them. Mathew Henry

Our Menu was as follows

Rick said the turkey was the best he'd ever tasted and of course everyone got their favorites and Kalli made her yummy homemade rolls.

 

 

The simple tablescape

 

 

We had just finished re-doing the ceiling in the living and dining rooms. Rick worked hard on the weathered gray panels. I did most of the painting.

 

 

Here's the before for reference.

 

 

After

 

 

 Before

 

 

After

 

 

 Before

 

 

 I must say that the post dinner crew with which I had to deal was very lively. I had a hard time containing the excitement.

 

 

Thankfully the crew inside my kitchen was a bit more ambitious. 

 

 

Kaite and Kaderick each chose a printable turkey to color.

 

 

 

Later we went to "Gramleaf" for dessert and to put up Grandma's Christmas décor for her.

 

 

The pies were homemade and were Chocolate Silk, Pecan Cream Cheese and Pumpkin.

 

 

The guys enjoyed a good game of horseshoes.

 

 

Kammy spent her afternoon with the neighbors horses.

 

 

Kaderick was very careful and intent about getting all the ornaments just so on grandma's tree.

 

 

The day closed with our traditional walk through town. It was a relatively warm day, but a little cool mist hung in the air.

 

 

At home again, we closed the day with a rousing game of Apples to Apples. Daddy was the judge on this particular round and while all of the above are quite disturbing, being the dad of four girls he had to go with "boyfriends" as the most disturbing of all. Haha!

 

 

Out in the country between Greenleaf and Caldwell there is a large and grand estate beautifully decked with Christmas lights. Coming home from Greenleaf tonight I said, "Let's take the kids and go BY that house with all the lights." So we did and as we drove BY Kaderick began to CRY. "I thought we were gonna BUY that house! Why did you say we were going to go BUY it and then we didn't??!!"
I'm still trying to explain my way out of this.

 

 

"Just so you know mommy, when I play with this thing it's not pink, it's a really really faded red." (He doesn't like pink.)

 

One crazy morning, headed to the hospital I grabbed a notebook to take along and it happened to be an older one of Kaite's. It ended up being worth some smiles in a stressful time as we flipped through it looking for a blank page. This was my favorite! Kaite had made a "bacat" (bucket) list.
1. Defeat lotor! (It's something she and Kaderick watch on occasion. Lotor is evidently the bad guy.)
2. See an elephant
3. Eat a real cookie.
4. Not sure???...
5. See stars.
My favorite is the cookie. Poor child has to put it on her bucket list to have a cookie that's not sugar free, gluten free or crammed with oatmeal and raisins.

 

 Kayla is about to finish up her 3rd semester of college. She was so excited because the other day her Anatomy and Physiology class got to visit a cadaver lab and she got to hold a brain in her hands. She also got to work a knee and many other things too exciting to name. Eww....

 

One other little project we undertook the other day was to re-do Grandpa and Grandma's bathroom. Here's the after. Grandma loves her beach bathroom memories.