O Give Thanks to the Lord

for He is good; for His mercy endures forever!

I am still amazed that in this day and age we have a Church full on Thanksgiving morning, 9:00. I think for so many in our parish it would be unthinkable to start the day without gathering as a parish family and offering the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God and hearing His Word.

We're still learning the Matins out of LSB. A few little bumps along the road with that - but we're definitely almost there.

Seminarian Richard Rikli stood in St. Paul's pulpit for the first time and delivered a homily that invited us into true thanksliving as he extolled the great things that God has done for us not only in what we normally think of as "first article" gifts, but also "second and third article gifts." As he was preaching this, my mind was drawn to the beautiful thanksgiving prayer that begins the Prayer of the Church many Sundays:

"Almighty God, we give thanks for all Your goodness and bless You for the love that sustains us from day to day. We praise You for the gift of Your Son, our Saviour, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We thank You for the Holy Spirit, the Comforter; for Your holy Church, for the means of grace, for the lives of all faithful and just people, and for the hope of the life that is to come. Help us to treasure in our hearts all that You have done for us, and enable to us show our thankfulness in lives that are wholly given to Your service."

A visitor remarked on her way out how much she enjoyed the service, singing the old hymns and that wonderful Matins service.

We headed home and prepared the pre-feast. The gamble was the stuffed mushrooms. I tried something new. I emptied out the stems as usually, threw them in the microwave and heated them. Meanwhile I fried up some sausage patties and chopped them up. Then in the blender I put the stems, the sausage, some parmesan and some Merlot. I worked it to a fine mush and then stuffed the caps with that and topped with swiss cheese. They were really good!!!

After the pre-feast, we sang. We pretty well covered the Advent and Christmas sections of the hymnal, I believe. Lots of fun!

Then the feast. It wasn't the turkey that gave trouble. Cindi has mastered the art of the quick cook turkey. It was the potatoes. Or more precisely, the stove. It has a little button we'd not noticed before that allows a certain burner to be set to simmer! And that's where we were trying to cook the potatoes! Once we realized what was wrong, and fixed it, and finished up the taters, we were 1/2 hour behind the rest of the food. Ah well, it was still all plenty hot and tasty.

We did some clean up, some more singing, and then had room for the pie - this was a true Weedon thanksgiving. Only nine people present, but no less than four pies AND a cheesecake. Reminded me very much of our gatherings at home - we each had a different favorite pie and mom would bake one for each of us!

After our guests departed, we rested, ate a bit more, and rested more. A totally enjoyable day indeed. We're also very much looking forward to Christmas this year when Cindi's Aunt Sandy and her son and daughter-in-law will join around the table. Our dining room table used to belong to Cindi's grandmother, Nana, and we have so many wonderful memories of gathering around it at her house in Bethesda, Maryland for different holidays or just to play games. It's neat to think that at Christmas many of those who used to feast regularly at that table with feast there again. Well, enough rambling. A blessed thanksgiving to you all!