Category Archives: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Long Weekend 2023

We had nine at our Thanksgiving table this year before three more family members made the drive on Friday. My sister and her husband traveled from Texas to be with us locals from Colville. I’m happy to announce that we were pleased with cooking the turkey in the convection oven. It took half the time and the results were good. We’ll make a couple tweaks next year…if we remember.

On Friday, later in the afternoon, this carload of three arrived from their six hour drive and we were eleven for a pulled pork dinner. Our daughter’s hubby unfortunately was under the weather and stayed home.

On Saturday our group split up and spent the morning and afternoon with separate adventures.

The older folk ventured across the line into Canada for some fun in Rossland and Trail, B.C. We had good interactions with the Border Agents again.

The sun was out for another glorious squinty day! Rossland is at a higher elevation and known as a skiing destination. The shaded sidewalks were icy. We tried to walk on the sunny side of the street.

We enjoyed the artwork around town and made some purchases before we traveled a bit further to enjoy lunch in Trail.

Persian food is a favorite in our family and we were happy with the quality of food at Kootenay Kabab in Trail.

Our carload made it back across the border to our Country Bungalow in time to watch the second half of the Cross state rivalry between the University of Washington and the Washington State Cougars, known as the Apple Cup. Having three University of Washington alumni in our family we are Husky fans. We are outnumbered on the side of the state that we live in now. Our Huskies waited until the last second of the game to win! With that win they are undefeated this season.

While we were in Canada our kids enjoyed time in Colville on our local kids’ property.

We all gathered together again for dinner and fun on Saturday evening.

Addy enjoyed time with her aunties and great auntie and JJ enjoyed his Uncle JOSH-SHU-WA. This weekend for JJ, Uncle Joshie was Uncle Josh shu wa.

Ember enjoyed the visiting hands that stroked her head. The large Thanksgiving banner was a great project for everyone to contribute their coloring skills to. Mexican Train was the game of the weekend.

We are thankful to be able to spend extended time together any time of the year but it is always a special time at Thanksgiving. So grateful for all who traveled a long way to get here! We don’t take that for granted.

As you can imagine the last several days have been very busy and I’ve had little time on the computer and for visiting. Hopefully I’ll catch up soon before the next grand adventure the end of this week!

Thank you to all for your visits and your comments. I appreciate every one of you!

My God, I Thank Thee ~ Hymn

My God, I Thank Thee, Who Hast Made

My God, I thank Thee, who hast made
The earth so bright,
So full of splendor and of joy,
Beauty and light;
So many glorious things are here,
Noble and right.

I thank Thee, too, that Thou hast made
Joy to abound;
So many gentle thoughts and deeds
Circling us round,
That in the darkest spot of earth
Some love is found.

I thank Thee more that all our joy
Is touched with pain,
That shadows fall on brightest hours,
That thorns remain;
So that earth’s bliss may be our guide,
And not our chain.

For thou who knowest, Lord, how soon
Our weak heart clings,
Hast given us joys, tender and true,
Yet all with wings;
So that we see gleaming on high
Diviner things.

I thank Thee, Lord, that Thou hast kept
The best in store;
We have enough, yet not too much
To long for more:
A yearning for a deeper peace
Not known before.

I thank Thee, Lord, that here our souls
Though amply blessed,
Can never find, although they seek
A perfect rest;
Nor ever shall, until they lean
On Jesus’ breast.

Words: Adelaide A. Procter, 1858.

Happy Thanksgiving 2023

The table is set and we are getting ready for our guests. The turkey will go in the oven about noon since we aren’t eating until 4ish. I’ll be trying the convection setting on our oven for the first time. (Hope nothing goes wrong!) The yams are boiling and will be ready to peel, slice, and put into a casserole sprinkled generously with butter and brown sugar and topped with marshmallows, then baked to perfection. That is a family favorite. Jamie is bringing pies, her Granny’s buns and brussels sprouts. Linda is bringing whipped cream and cranberry sauce.

My Yorkshire dishes hold even more meaning this year after our walk along the Yorkshire Dales in September.

I saw these photos from 2017 and 2019 from our ‘Grands’ first Thanksgivings and couldn’t resist sharing them this year.

Addy’s First Thanksgiving

JJ’s first Thanksgiving.

Happy USA Thanksgiving Day!

Thanks be to God who gives us all good things to enjoy.

Thanks be to Jesus who died on the cross for our sins and made the way possible for forgiveness of those sins and peace with God.

Thanks be to the Holy Spirit who is with us teaching us and comforting us.

Truth for Today will resume next Thursday. I’ll leave you with this benediction from the book of Hebrews.

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Closer to Home

Things are shaping up here at our country bungalow in preparation for our Thanksgiving Festivities.

Our feathered friends have made some fine appearances, too.

 

We’ve noticed with our covey of Quails that there is always a lookout stationed above the rest to let them know of impending danger.

We love it when quail come to visit.

 

This beauty also graced us with an appearance long enough for some photos.

I’m guessing this is a Northern Flicker. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

 

 

I’m working on a puzzle of Dublin and have made some good progress. I’ll need to finish this one before Thanksgiving.

What is new in your corner of the world.

Grateful Hodgepodge

Time for Wednesday Hodgepodge with a new set of questions that Joyce From This Side of the Pond is asking.

1. Besides Thanksgiving (in the USA) what’s one thing you’re looking forward to in November? 

Cozy clothes and sitting by a fire.

2. Do you like candles? Your favorite scent? How often do you burn a candle in your home? 

I do like candles and I enjoy soft scents not overly sweet scents. We do not burn scented candles often but we do burn lots of birthday candles.

3. What gadgets did you use today? 

A Sonicare toothbrush, a wooden spoon, and a measuring cup. A low gadget day. 🙂

4. This question is a repeat from one asked in November of 2014, but I liked it so it’s coming round again. Many of you weren’t here in 2014. Okay, you can have fifty pounds of something (anything but money)…what will you choose?

If gasoline came in pounds, I’d choose fifty pounds of gasoline for my car and lawnmower. Since it doesn’t, I’ll pick fifty pounds of flour.

Also, since I mentioned it…what were you up to in November of 2014? 

In November of 2014 we were still living in Western Washington. We were getting to know our future daughter-in-law. Our son asked her to marry him soon after Thanksgiving.

5. ‘Tis the season…what’s something you’re feeling especially grateful for today? 

I posted this quote from Martin Luther on Facebook Tuesday which was when I was working on the Hodgepodge. Yesterday was Reformation Day.

“Lord Jesus, You are my righteousness; I am Your sin. You took on You what was mine, yet set on me what was Yours. You became what You were not, that I might become what I was not.” – Martin Luther
~
Thank you, Jesus!

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Some Halloween shenanigans from yesterday, Beetlejuice, Barbie, Bowling crew…the pin, the bowling ball and the bowler, a cat and random wig guy.
~
Welcome November!

Willow

Andrew and Katie were given permission to bring their cat Willow with them for Thanksgiving. This was a first for us and the first cat in our Country Bungalow.

She had many new discoveries to make and routes to enjoy that no human could.

There were two rooms where the doors were closed and she was denied access. She became obsessed with wanting to get into our room one night and we saw her little paw under our door and then she rattled the door and meowed. Hilarious.

She knew where she could hide when the grands were here and were playing their hardest.

She survived and by the end of her time with us was making a little contact with me and Auntie Lolo. We’ll see if she wants to come back at Christmas.

Welcome to December!

Rounding Out November

Our Thanksgiving weekend was completed Monday morning when we said our goodbyes to Uncle Joshie and Auntie Lolo praying for a good drive home especially over the passes. Auntie Lolo shared more of her photos with us on their drive and I’m using them to round out November here on my blog. Thank you Lolo!

Our November has been a wintry one with temperatures in the teens and below freezing for a lot of the month.

Addy has a recital coming up in December. She’s the youngest in the bunch so she’ll start the evening off with this song she is practicing.

Addy is practicing her selfie skills in this one.

Me and my guy.

Uncle Joshie captured this shot.

Thank you for making the snowy drive to Colville and home again Uncle and Auntie. We miss you already!

Monday night I had a Women’s Ministry meeting at church with a light meal of appetizers shared. The meeting was short and then the fun task for the evening was decorating the church for Christmas. Our head of services gal was in charge of that and had already gotten a good start so the task was lighter than usual. I opted out of the decorating and headed home on the snowpacked/icy roads.

Today is a quiet day here at our Country Bungalow. We started the morning off at 10 degrees. Brrr. I’ll be watching World Cup Soccer today as the USA plays Iran. My parents were married in Iran and our oldest 2 sisters were born in Iran. We’ve mostly called that country Persia. So thankful God led our people out of that country back in the late 40’s and early 50’s. Our parents were the first of their family to immigrate to the USA in 1947.

Thankful for this quiet day and hope the predictions of up to 14 inches of snow into tomorrow morning is an exaggeration!

It’s Still November

The last days of November have been filled with lots of food, laughter, noise, World Cup Soccer, puzzles, dishwashing, and best of all family time.

Our Thanksgiving meal was on the Mountain and Andrew tried to channel our LoLo and her selfie skills. He did a good job. Our Grands had their Granny Great, Granny, Gramps, Baba, Auntie and Uncle at their house to enjoy our Thanksgiving meal.

Uncle helped them create and build serving as a living ladder.

On Friday before Uncle Joshie and Auntie LoLo arrived the fun continued.

Baba pulled out some old jewelry and it was fun to see just how many pieces would fit on fingers, wrists and necks.

Auntie Lolo has a new tripod to aid her in taking selfies! I suppose they would be called tripodies, not selfies. We took this family shot since Katie and Andrew and Willow decided to beat the snow in the passes and head home on Saturday instead of Sunday.

The sweet goodbyes.

On Saturday Jamie organized a Sign Painting event at our Country Bungalow and we enjoyed creating these signs. It was fun to see the personal twist on each sign. We had a lovely charcuterie lunch that Jamie prepared while we waited for our paint to dry so we could glue the 3d parts on the signs.

On the right side of this photo are 4 generations with our granddaughter being the 4th!

While our sign event was going on the guys were busy on another errand.

We all gathered again on Saturday evening for soup.

Sunday we gathered to worship at our church with a sermon from 2nd Timothy and our service ended with the Baptism of 4 people. Always a great way to end a Sunday Worship service. Lunch at the Colville kids and then dinner back at our Country Bungalow.

The dishwashers have been going nonstop here in Colville. Hope y’all had a good Thanksgiving long weekend or a regular weekend!

So Far From Want Hodgepodge

 

It’s time for Wednesday Hodgepodge on the Eve of Thanksgiving here in the USA. Thank you to Jo From This Side of the Pond for the timely questions.

1. Have you ever been on a cruise? If so where did you go and how did you like it? If not, do you have any desire to take a cruise someday? 

The answer to all of these is no. If a cruise could tempt me it would be a small boat river cruise.

2. Tell us about your Thanksgiving plans…are you hosting? cooking? eating out? turkey or some other main? is it stuffing or dressing in your house? homemade cranberries or cranberries in a can? are pies on the dessert menu? what kind? what are your ‘must have’ sides? Tell us one thing you’re especially grateful for this year.

Our Colville Kids are hosting and I’ll be bringing the Yams with Marshmallow topping goodness. Stuffing is enjoyed as part of our turkey tradition. It doesn’t pay with our crowd to make homemade cranberry sauce so I’ll buy a can of it just in case someone asks for it. Yes, pies for dessert, pumpkin and pecan. Must have the Yams with the marshmallows.

This year we are especially grateful for Greg’s continued recovery from his stroke on November the 5th.

3. If someone approaches you and asks for money do you give it to them? Do you drop money ‘in a tin cup’ that belongs to a person on the street? Do you have a specific charity you support during the holiday season and/or year round?

I am not prone to dig in my purse and give money to someone on the street. I have dropped money into a violin case, or a guitar case or a similar container for street entertainers. We have in the past donated to the Union Gospel Mission Thanksgiving dinner drive. Our specific donations during the year for those in need go through our home church’s benevolent fund.

4. Have you started decorating for Christmas? Is your tree up? Shopping done? Wrapped? 

While our kids are here this coming weekend I am solicitating their help in getting the fall decor put away and the Christmas bins down and helping me decorate. They will carry the fake tree in from the garage, too.

This is a stocking only year for our family because of a trip we are all taking together in January. Shopping for those stocking gifts are half done and they not wrapped.

5. Create your own acrostic using the word THANKS. 

Because of our health scare in November my acrostic is about Dear and Me. We will celebrate 48 years married on December 6th. We always have a lot to be thankful for. This year the theme is different.

T is for time away together traveling near and far.
H is for our hours of learning more about God with the help of the Holy Spirit.
A is for another year to celebrate being one in Christ.
N is for new things to learn about each other.
K is for knowing our hope is in eternity with God.
S is for our Savior and Lord who secures it by his perfect sacrifice.

6.  Insert your own random thought here.  

Our pastor shared the following letter and especially the quote that I put in bold letters. The letter is from Edward Winslow’s 1621 Thanksgiving letter from Plymouth in New England.

Loving, and old Friend; although I received no letter from you by this ship, yet forasmuch as I know you expect the performance of my promise, which was, to write unto you truly and faithfully of all things.  I have therefore at this time sent unto you accordingly.  Referring you for further satisfaction to our more large relations.  You shall understand, that in this little time, that a few of us have been here, we have built seven dwelling-houses, and four for the use of the plantation, and have made preparation for divers others.  We set the last spring some twenty acres of Indian corn, and sowed some six acres of barley and peas, and according to the manner of the Indians, we manured our ground with herrings or rather shads, which we have in great abundance, and take with great ease at our doors.  Our corn did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown, they came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom; our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the company almost a week, at which time amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain, and others.  And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

If you’d like to read the whole letter click here.

We forget here in our land of plenty that we are far from want. Thanksgiving is a good time to remember all we have and how far from want we are. Everyday is a good day to thank God for his goodness to us. Hoping we all are ready to share our plenty.

Happy Thanksgiving Hodgepodgers!