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Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
25 November 2010
The most important thing to remember
when giving your baby a bath in the sink
on Thanksgiving day,
is that as juicy and butterball-y as she may be,
she is
no turkey.
Happy Thanksgiving!
"Thou hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more, a grateful heart;
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if Thy blessings had spare days,
But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise."
—George Herbert
26 November 2009
"Oh come, let us sing to the Lord.
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the Lord is the great God, and great King above all gods.
In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
The sea is His, for He made it;
And His hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and sheep of His hand."
Psalm 50:1-7
****************
This year we celebrated Thanksgiving at the Faires' home. Isn't it lovely?
It's especially lovely considering that it looked like this less than two weeks ago when they moved in! (Now you can see where we've been spending all our time!)
Here's another before shot of the family room:
And here is Caleb's family enjoying the room today. (Look at all those gorgeous windows looking out into the backyard! Perfect for a Mama whose kids love to play outside!)
Oliver and Bea enjoyed making puppet shows with our cardboard Ikea puppet stage.
And poor, poor Oliver had to hold still for just a second so his
Mama could photograph him in his handsome tie.
Was it really too much to ask?
Caleb tending the fire.
Beatrice had her eye on a loaf of french bread on the side board...
... and some days you just can't come up with a good reason why not.
I think she looks a little bit like she's playing the bassoon.
With this pudding 'stashe she looks a bit like her cousin, don't you think?
Oliver cuddled with his Grandpa,
and with his Papa.
And this Mama enjoyed being with two of her boys.
*********
We give thanks not because of the absence of trouble or because we have the security of many blessings. We give thanks to God because of who He is - because of His unchanging character. He is good. He is faithful. His steadfast love endures forever!
I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving!
God is so good, all the time!
(oh, and a very special thanks to my sweet husband who took time with me to make my blog header a little more "Christmasy"! I'm a tough client - it's a good thing I get to pay him in food, kisses and babies, otherwise I'd owe him a lot of money for all the design things he does for me! Thanks, Ry!)
09 December 2008
So, I thought I was really something. This year for Thanksgiving I was pretty sure I had all my bases covered, twice! I even sat down with my kitchen chalkboard and created an intricate timeline outlining the food preparation for Thanksgiving morning and the day before. I had all the dishes I was responsible for coordinated and cooking in two kitchens, oven temps in sync and everything finishing right on time to all be piping hot as we sat down for the big feast. I'm so cool, right?
And then, it was time to hang it on the wall.
All that effort, all that organization, all that pride and attempts at impressing my guests, and I'd done the entire thing UPSIDE DOWN!
I just didn't have the heart to do it all over again. I swallowed my Thanksgiving turkey pride and hung it next to my apron, upside down. And, sure enough, all my guests saw it - upside down. Pride goes before the fall, I guess. :)
30 November 2008
Okay, so I've taken a bit of a hiatus from blogging these past two weeks. I realized today that I've only posted once since my bi-weekly "Not Me Monday" post. The truth is, I've been a bit lazy, quite a bit sick and a whole lot of busy.
And, now it's time to play catch up! I have about 25 photos to share to fill in the gap of the past two weeks. I could do this part Not-Me-Monday-style, but that would just be exhausting. I'll aim to do that later today. Until then, I hope you'll enjoy!
So, Ryan and I have picked up a big interest in rock climbing at the local indoor crag. We're loving it, and, in true Ryan fashion, he's already on the eBay hunt for us to have all our own gear!
In home decor news, I can finally set my shame aside as we have officially completed (most of) the painting of the living room, stairs and upstairs hallways. It's a huge relief to have it done. I'm currently considering tackling the dining room with Benjamin Moore's festive "million dollar red" for the holidays. We'll, of course, return it to it's regularly scheduled color once spring comes... stay tuned...
Also in decorating news, we've put up the tree and swapped the dining room with the living room. The dining room table is now in front of the fireplace. This switch initially took place to accommodate the Thanksgiving Feast, but we sort of enjoy it now, and we're considering leaving it this way for a bit.
Who needs leg warmers? Oliver asked Grandma to help him try on all of our stockings while I was working on the meal on Thursday.
When it was time for Scout to make her exit (also the time for our guests to make their entrance), Ryan called her outside to the van (she was supposed to spend the afternoon down the street with Derby, the Creech's dog in his yard). Anyway, she protested by hiding under and behind the Christmas tree.
This is our Thanksgiving table. Ryan made cards for each person with a small portion of Psalm 147 typed on them (the scripture I shared in my last post). Before the meal, we went around the table taking turns to complete the reading. Following Psalm 147, Ryan read the "Praise and Thanksgiving" prayer out of The Valley of Vision to bless the meal. It was really lovely.
This last verse was in the middle of the table for us all to read in unison.
When Beatrice arrived, the music was playing, and the kids actually grabbed hands and started dancing with one another. They really know how to get all the grown ups' attention!
My lovely sister and brother-in-law.
The handsome head-of-household. :)
My sweet Mama.
The whole group.
Rebecca was in charge of making the apple-cranberry potpies look beautiful.
After dinner, a walk.
This is what we've taught Oliver to do when he has to wait for something. I believe that here he is waiting for Auntie Rebecca to share some pumpkin pie with him.
So, I only took a few pictures of our three days in Ohio.
Here are my boys playing outside while the meal is being prepared.
And this is just as Great-Grandma Tilmant is pulling in the driveway. He was so excited and wanted to run to the car. Ryan told him to wait, and this is what we got. He's my dream kid.
27 November 2008
A hearty and happy Thanksgiving Day to all of you!
Today we are thankful.
Ryan is thankful for:
- A years' worth of work
- God's grace
- Running water
- Starbucks
- The free Garmin gps we just got in the mail!
I am thankful for:
- My dear and loving husband
- God's beautiful, blue-eyed gift of life to us that is Oliver William
- That I am currently "on schedule" for preparing the big feast
- That 362 days of the year, God gives me a voice
- Oliver is wearing undies today! (eek!)
- Hope
Oliver is thankful for:
- Mommy's make-up brushes (they make excellent toys!)
- Balloons
- Hot Chocolate (we are not above letting Oliver join in the holiday festivities!)
- Mini Marshmallows ("two!" for each time he goes potty in the toilet)
- The spaces in between his toes (he could examine them for hours)
Scout is thankful for:
- The bath Ryan gave her yesterday which makes us all like her a bit more
- Leftovers
"Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
The Lord builds up His people; He gathers the outcasts of the land.
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of stars; He gives to all of them their names.
Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
His understanding is beyond measure.
The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground.
Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God!
Praise the Lord, O you chosen ones!
Praise your God, O you people!"
Psalm 147:1-7,12
17 November 2008
Well, Christine, I'm with you on the bi-weekly "Not Me Monday" posts. What do you say we alternate? I, too have trouble being clever and witty every single Monday. :) I'm sure MckMamma would approve.
Well, for starters, I feel that I need to clarify a few things:
You know that lovely blue color that we painted our living room last April but left the highest parts of the walls (16' and up) to do a week later when we could find a taller ladder? It is definitely not still unfinished eight months later. And, the cool brown color we chose for the stairs and upstairs hallways more than four weeks ago? The new trim and moulding detail we thought would only take a week? That is certainly not sitting in limbo right now, a blaring banner of our tendency to start projects then take our time, for anyone who comes into our house to see first thing.
I'm so glad we cleared that up.
And, while we're clearing the air, I can say with firm conviction that I definitely did not wake up last Thursday morning and randomly decide to potty train my newly-two-year-old son in a day. That would be completely ridiculous, absurd and just setting myself up for defeat! But, for the record, he did not have 4 wonderful successes that day, and is not now a potty training champion. (!) And, for the record, he does not look absolutely ADORABLE in his tiny 2T boxer briefs running around the house celebrating life's small victories. Not Oliver.
Speaking of our little victor; I did not leave my wallet next to the computer this morning only to return to find it empty of my driver's license, debit card and credit card. I furthermore did not witness said 2-year-old proceeding to stick my library card in the disc drive of our iMac, cluing me in to where my other missing items may be found. And, I would be so incredibly frustrated if this did not actually mean that I am now sans 3 important cards and a disc drive for my computer. Seriously folks, if that had happened, if my driver's license were somewhere in the middle of my computer that I am currently typing on, so close, yet so so far away, I would feel a little crazy and desperate right now. So glad that did not happen this morning.
On a lighter note, I'm not planning to go rock climbing with my husband and good friends this weekend. And, if you want to join us, please don't feel free to give me a call. It would definitely not be the more the merrier.
I didn't go shopping with my Mom for Christmas gifts for my husband and son on Saturday. And, while I was out, shopping for gifts for others, I did not come across a great deal on jewel-toned sweaters at Old Navy and pick one up for myself while wishing myself a very Merry Christmas. I feel like that would have been missing the point of the outing. Good thing I controlled myself.
I didn't get to sleep in until almost 10:00 today because I just wasn't ready to start the week.
When we used to put Oliver down for naps, locking his door from the inside was not a great way to keep him committed to nap time (with a key hanging on the outside of his door, of course). He has not recently observed how we lock/unlock doorknobs, and learned how to escape rest time yet again. Because of our little Houdini, I did not cleverly devise a way to (very stylishly, of course) layer many angles of scotch tape over his door knob, completely and thoroughly covering the lock so that he could no longer escape the locked door.
This afternoon, I did not forget about my clever jimmy-rigging and close his door behind me, locking myself into his room while Ryan was gone for a meeting. The joke was not on me. I did not stand at the doorknob for several minutes, picking at my fancy tape job with my fingernails, sure that Oliver was watching and learning this new escape tactic.
After replacing the tape job and reading and singing Oliver into la-la-land, he did not, minutes later, do just what he'd seen his Mama doing and greet me in the hallway with a grin. Aw, man. Not again! Tape and locked doors is definitely not just a clever disguise for lazy parenting.
I am not totally excited about hosting Thanksgiving at our home next week! And, I am not that person who goes to Williams Sonoma, picks up their annual, free Thanksgiving planner complete with menu, recipes and a grocery list and then just does exactly what they say. That would be so consumerist of me. I am not a sell out!
Good thing we won't also have a traditional Thanksgiving meal in Ohio on Saturday to make up for the less traditional blue cheese spread appetizers, snap beans with caramelized shallots and Smoky Bacon-Biscuit Dressing.
It has not been 222 days since I first laid eyes on my sweet Evie-girl. It has also not been 222 days since I kissed her and smelled her, felt her weight in my hands and told her how much her Mama loves her for the last time on this earth. I have not missed her terribly this week.
All my love, my friends.
Do not go forth into your week with the grace and peace of Christ our Savior. (but really, do!)
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