Snippets of Thanks

Once again, our good friends spent Thanksgiving with us and made it one of the most delightful days of the year. We got smart and did canned corn instead of slow cooked green beans and frozen rolls instead of made from scratch. But the turkey, sweet potatoes, cornbread, and pumpkin pie were full of effort and deliciousness while being free of gluten and dairy. So I'm thankful for that. So very thankful for that.

Blurry Paul is thankful for PBR.

My retreat last weekend was just what the doctor ordered. If the doctor is my soul and the retreat is the saving grace I desperately needed to get me out of the rut that had taken over my prayer life. I had lots of time to read, pray in the chapel, and listen to wonderful talks on topics ranging from apostolic succession to Mary's role as our mother. The priest guided us through the most beautiful lectio divina of the story of the prodigal son. I admit, when he said what we would be doing I kind of made a sour face. I've just head the story so many times and listened to so many homilies on it, ya know? What cold I possibly learn from it again? But that's the thing about scripture. It's always fresh. Always new. Even though it ancient and unchanging. Halfway through I was moved to tears. I'll never hear the story the same way again. Thankful. Most definitely thankful for the retreat. And the Church. And Her wisdom in administering the sacraments to us. And for confession. Sweet, glorious, wonderful hour long confession. I could go on and on. Just thankful to be Catholic.

I grabbed my phone to see if I had pictures worth sharing and was met with about a dozen of these beauties.

I'm thankful for this girl and her mad camera skills.

And for these shopping carts.

And to Bass Pro for all their freeness. Free Santa. Free coloring sheets. Free kid crafts. And free viewing of "bid boodill" (big bluegill) which are actually largemouth bass.

And for the two minutes of peace and quiet that Bear's New Friend gets me.

I'm thankful that Advent starts Sunday!!!! I might just pull the liturgical day card and claim it's Advent in our household at 4:00 Saturday afternoon. I'm so ready for the season. So thankful for the overwhelming smell of pine needles wafting in our garage right now as we wait to bring our tree in tomorrow evening. Tonight during prayers Hannah thanked Jesus for Christmas trees. She knows what's up.

Ted is pulling the St. Andrew's feast day card and spending the day fishing on the coast tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be thankful for the yummy catch he'll bring home.

Thankful for you, the readers of this blog. Even more thankful for the commentors who give me little tokens of happiness throughout the day.

And for family, friends, the roof over my head. Ya know, all the important stuff.

In Thanksgiving

2012 blessed me with my first ever Thanksgiving. I mean my first Thanksgiving-where I cooked and hosted and stuff like that. It was only the second time I've celebrated the holiday without my family. (The first was three years ago-where Ted and I spent Thanksgiving alone in a Microtel in Tennessee getting the horrible results that I wasn't ovulating from our ten day ultrasound series. We ate at Cracker Barrel and cried on each other's shoulders.) This Thanksgiving was far, far better than that.

We started it off cheering on our friends at the Turkey Trot. They ran nine miles and I was so inspired that I vowed to do the 5K next year. I mean-I could hopefully walk miles in the time it took them to run nine right? We might do a family walk/jog with Hannah in the stroller and mystery baby in the Moby. Hannah won't stop talking about Summer "Um" and Chris "Tiss" and how they like to run. She says their names over and over again and while making little running motions with her arms.

I'm gonna pretend I'm cool enough to join in this link-up and post what I wore to Thanksgiving dinner. Here is the 26 week bump in all its Thanksgiving day glory.

If you care at all:

Cami-Target, a birthday gift from Ted

Sweater-Target, snagged from a friend during a clothing exchange (best idea ever!)

Jeans-Old Navy Maternity, bought at full-price with no coupon. I was desperate upon realizing that my only jeans from Hannah's pregnancy were already too tight!

Shoes-my favorite consignment store back in Mississippi

Pearl Necklace (not pictured)-a gift from Ted when Hannah was born :)

and much more importantly...

Undershirt-Kohl's, last year, way too small, turned inside out because she doesn't have any plain white t-shirts

Cardigan-Consignment Sale, J Crew (can you believe they have a kid's line???)

Jeggings-Wal-Mart, given to us by a former co-worker

Shoes-no thank you

If you didn't care about what we wore, you probably care even less about what we ate. But I was so stinking excited to prepare my first Thanksgiving meal that I'm going to share it with you anyway. Summer and I tackled the menu by ourselves and shopped, prepped, and cooked for two whole days. We were so blessed to have such great friends who also didn't have any family in town and also live too far away to go home.

We had a perfectly traditional menu: oven baked turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, garden green beans, cornbread dressing, homemade cranberry sauce, and classic pumpkin pie with real whipped cream. I'm absolutely positive that it was the only time in the history of Thanksgiving that the turkey was by far the best item on our plates. Turkey is usually pretty good-kinda dry-and I usually only eat one small piece to save room for the good stuff. But our friends can sure make a turkey! It was absolutely phenomenal. 

Growing up we celebrated two Thanksgivings with each side of my family. Over 40 cousins, 20+ aunts and uncles, and all my grandparents. It was fun and crazy and noisy and exciting-but it was never fancy. And although I wouldn't trade family for all the fancy in the world, I admit that it was nice to get to do things like make a centerpiece, use our fine china, pull out the expensive serving bowls, and drink water out of goblets. We were fortunate to get Ted's Nana's china four years ago and this is its first appearance in our home. The reason-we just now have a home big enough to store it in! I can't wait to bring it out for all of our special occasions in the future.

A few other tidbits from our day:

Ted gave a beautiful blessing before dinner. It made me proud to be his wife. And I promise I wasn't laughing through it because of anything he said. It was definitely the music being played loudly by our white trash neighbors. So we pray-bless us Oh Lord..... coupled with Let me get a big hell yeah from the redneck girls like me. Hell Yeah! While I'm just immature and couldn't suppress my chuckle.

And yes-if you haven't noticed from the pictures-we ate Thanksgiving dinner outside! It was an absolutely beautiful day. We hung lights on our back porch and sat at the table for almost three straight hours-getting up only to get seconds, thirds, or dessert.

A truly blessed day with great friends, a wonderful husband and daughter, and delicious food. A Thanksgiving to remember!