As Prepared as Prepared Gets

Turkey is still defrosting. The dry ingredients to the dressing are melding flavors in a baggy in the fridge. The cheeses have been cut up. Mushroom caps have been readied for baking. Potatoes are peeled and sitting upon the stove in a pot of water. Pies have all been baked, and also the pumpkin cheesecake. Cocktail sauce for the shrimp is chilling. Floors are mopped, vacuumed, and furniture dusted. Choir is done practicing for Matins tomorrow. Prayers are upon the altar. All is ready to give thanks to God and then to enjoy a wondrous time of friendship and family. As the Psalter teaches us to cry out: "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!"

My "thanks be to God" list this year:

Thanks be to God for the Holy Eucharist!
Thanks be to God for Holy Baptism!
Thanks be to God for the Divine Service!
Thanks be to God for the gift of music!
Thanks be to God for the unspeakable gift of His Son and His Spirit!
Thanks be to God for our parish family!
Thanks be to God for the heartaches and troubles that teach us to turn to Him!
Thanks be to God for friends and acquaintances, including those we get to know on the net!
Thanks be to God for my wife, and each of my children (including Dean)!
Thanks be to God for Jo and Dave, who are like the best "inlaws" in the whole world!
Thanks be to God for all my brothers and sisters: Butch and Bonnie, Sis and Jimmy, Peggy, Maup and Nancy, Deb and Doug, Dee and Keith!
Thanks be to God for nieces and nephews and grand nieces and nephews - too many to count, but each a precious gift!
Thanks be to God for giving us HIs Sacred Scriptures!
Thanks be to God for the clarity of the Lutheran Symbols!
Thanks be to God for the joy of being together as His family - a foretaste of an eternal "homecoming"!
Thanks be to God for everything and everyone!
Thanks be to God forever!