A Joyous Thanksgiving

I just love the celebration of Thanksgiving. We got up early to get the turkey in our smoker. Cindi had rubbed it under the skin with butter and fresh rosemary. We sang an exuberant Matins (and pretty much a packed Church) at 9:00 a.m., with Bell Choir and Adult Choir. We headed home and finished the preparations, and finally about quarter after noon said our Thanksgiving Litany and then 28 of us sat down to enjoy the feast that all had contributed to. Two turkeys and a ham were the meats, but we had an abundance of sides: five onion gratin; sweet potato souffles (two of them!); twice baked mash potatoes; fried apples with cinnamon; gravy (thanks, Mark!) and an Alfredo sauce; broccoli; mushrooms with bacon in a cream sauce; 75 light rolls (thanks, David!); and cranberry sauce. Wine for the older folks and sparkling grape juice for the younger ones. After we had eaten the main course, we had a delightful hymn sing (thanks to Paul and John for playing for us): "Lord, Thee I Love," "Now Thank We All Our God," "O Lord, How Shall I Meet You," "Children of the Heavenly Father," "O Little Flock," "Break Forth" and I can't remember all the rest. THEN it was time for dessert: I think we had five or six pumpkin pies, two chocolate pies, David's famous caramel cheesecake, whipped cream galore, coffee, port, whiskey, whatever. We figured out a way to set up three tables (two in dining area; one in living room) that accommodated us all, which was really neat.

P.S. Apparently, blogger has not yet closed off a loophole: you can EMAIL the post to the blog and it will still post it, even though you haven’t given permission to track. Sweet!