Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Lots of Pumpkin Pie and more pies and goodies. 

Me and Julie.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. It was a beautiful 7.7kg turkey (under 20 lbs?) and a 5.5kg smoked boneless ham. I baked the turkey and ham, three pumpkin pies, Gulliver's Creamed Cron, and prepared the Caramel dip and apples appetizer. Everyone brought lovley side dishes and it was a wonderful spread. We had 25 adults and 17 children at our special feast. It worked out really well. I love Julie's picture of the shoes at the door. That was just a fraction of them! A special thank you to Julie Weiss for the images! As hostess, I do a terrible job of photo journaling our parties. David and Julie Weiss came all the way from the U.S.A. to be with us! They are Brian's clients and good friends and were a special guests along with Robert who came from Taiwan.

I love introducing (and converting) friends to Thanksgiving, especially pumpkin pie. Of course many Americans were present, but we also had 4 from Taiwan, 4 from England, 1 from Indonesia, 2 from Ireland/Indonesia, 1 from Australia and 1 from China, not including our sweet ayi who left as soon as the crowd got bigger. She said she couldn't understand anything and was happy to leave. It was also time to clock off, however. She's from Anhui and was only a few weeks on the job at this time. We really love her. 

Brian and David.

There are not enough seats for the crowds we have and people don't seem to making making do!

Brock and Dash with friends Max and Ronan who are his buddies at school. 

Julie and David Weiss. Our special guests. It worked out they could be here with us to celebrate Thanksgiving. They are wonderful friends and people and I love every minute we get to spend with them. 

I grew up being taught that we have two ancestors who sailed across on the Mayflower. With my sister Kathe's amazing family history work, we now know we are related to 11. I love the holiday the pilgrims ultimately inspired the United States of America to celebrate today. The "First Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in 1621.  It became an official Federal holiday in 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26.

Amidst all of the hardships, trials and difficulties they endured in order to just survive, they recognized God's hand in their lives and expressed thanks to Him in a beautiful way. And now, almost 400 years later, we celebrate a day of Thanksgiving and express our gratitude to our God with family, friends and food. What a beautiful holiday. I am grateful to those who have gone before me.