Category Archives: Thanksgiving

St. Michael’s Mount

Over the years I thought it so magical that there were places in the world where you could walk to during low tide and then when the tide rolled in you’d be stranded on an island. During our September trip to England and because we were in the southern part of Cornwall we made it a point to visit St. Michael’s Mount to fulfill a bucket list desire. It was a very grey misty day but we put on some waterproof gear and headed out. That Thursday would be our last full day in Cornwall.

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The weather and lighting made it hard for this amateur photographer to get brilliant photos from afar but the experience was fun nevertheless. I’ll share more from the “Mount” on another day. We made the walk back and forth on the causeway and did not get stranded on the Mount. If you miss the safe walking window there are little passenger ferries to bring you back but we heard that they make for a very sea sick inducing ride…

I’ll be stuck on an island of sorts for the next few days but I’ll be back in full swing again next week. We are having our family Thanksgiving Meal this Saturday. All the kids will be here but Andrew. This is the weekend that our son Dan will be able to come across the mountains. He works on Thanksgiving day. He’s bringing a guest with him that we are looking forward to meeting. My sister and brother in law will join us, too. They will be fresh back from a short mission trip to the Dominican Republic so it will be fun to hear all about it. It seems 9 is the number around our table for November celebrations. It’s not easy finding a fresh turkey this early in the month of November but a local meat market pulled through for me. I did not want to deal with defrosting a solid as a rock turkey! Turkey, Yams, Stuffing, Gravy, Mashed Potatoes, Rolls and nothing green…that’s how we roll. Pumpkin and Berry pies for dessert.

How many do you have around your table when the family gathers? Are you able to make room on your plate for something green on Thanksgiving?

She’s Doing the Happy Dance!

No, it’s not because I’m nipping on the Smirntopf. I’ve met my November 30th deadlines and it makes me footloose and fancy free.

But back to the Smirntopf. If you follow my blog you know that way back in the summer I was inspired by Rosella to try making Rumtopf but I called mine Smirntopf because I used Smirnoff Vodka with the fruit and sugar instead of Rum. Here’s another post about Rumtopf on Rosella’s blog.

This is what it looked like when we added the last bit of fruit, sugar, and vodka and before we stirred and strained it.

Dear and I stirred the Smirntopf and strained our Smirntopf and have a pot of the fruit wondering what we will do with it. After straining the liquid from the fruit I stirred it real good and strained it again through cheesecloth before I filled the containers.

Now I’m wondering who might enjoy a little container of our Smirntopf…

Today is the last day of November and I have some final Grace Challenge thoughts to post.

I’m thankful for the inspiration and encouragement from my blogging friends.

I’m thankful to God that he gave me the words I needed to complete a project.

I’m thankful that we are entering the Christmas season and I’m turning my thoughts to focusing on Jesus during Advent.

When we focus on all we’ve been given it’s easier to give. At our church our pastor said “Grateful people give in response to God’s grace.”

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
~ 2 Corinthians 8:9

My brother had a great suggestion for continuing the Grace Challenge.

“As you enter the advent season, a season traditionally marked by gift giving (graciousness) make your giving not out of obligation but truly out of grace.  Here are some Grace Challenge encouragements for your gift giving, for your abundance of good deeds:

  1. Make a list of the people you are buying gifts for this Christmas season in your Grace Challenge Notebook.
  2. Pray for them daily; Give thanks for them daily.
  3. With your gift, write a note that expresses the content of your prayer and thanks for the person you have been gracious towards. Use Ephesians 1 and Colossians 1 as examples for your writing and prayer.
  4. Believe that your prayer and thanksgiving is worth more than the monetary value of the gift given. “

Blessings…

The Majority…

It was nice having the majority of our children around over the 4 day Thanksgiving Holiday. We are looking forward to seeing Katie and Andrew the day after Christmas for the majority of their trip to the West. They will be in Salt Lake City for 4 days before they continue their flight to Seattle.

I made my first dutch baby the morning after Thanksgiving. I will definitely make it again. This one had blueberries in it. The photo of  our 3 kids above was taken on the same day at our favorite Mexican restaurant. And yes, we ate our way through the 4 days…

All the Christmas containers are down from the attic. Now I need to decide what to put up. We won’t be getting our tree until the weekend of the 8th.

How’s Christmas decorating shaping up at your house?

Giving and Receiving…

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;

he chastens and hastens His will to make known;

We started with some appetizers. Really? Do you need appetizers at a Thanksgiving meal? Probably not so it’s good not to fuss over them.

The table is something I do like to spend time on. If this is not your thing don’t fuss over it either. The most important thing is having people around your table not what’s on the table.

We generally serve buffet style especially at Thanksgiving because we have way too many dishes to fit on the table and serve family style. When it’s just a family dinner it works fine to put all the dishes right on the table.

Did you notice, too, that there is nothing green on the plate? I gave up making salads for Thanksgiving years ago. There’s just not enough room on the plate for it. I just tell people to have a green smoothie for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning before they head over.

It’s wonderful when you can count on your guests to chip in with part of the meal. Thank you Beth for the desserts and Lana for the potatoes and turkey shaped butter!

We had a wonderful time from Thursday on. I will admit that I was dead Thursday evening. On Friday Lana, Laura and I made one short trip to Country Village in Bothell for a quick run through our 3 favorite stores. Just long enough to get a little shopping out of our systems. We dropped Lana off at home for her to continue her Christmas decorating with her new purchases. Laura and I headed to my house and suggested a meal out at our local Mexican hang out with the guys. They thought that was a great idea and it was nice not to have to cook or warm up another meal.

Because of our cookbook deadlines I made one more meal for my family to test on Saturday night. I’m happy to report it worked out great. All I have left to do is document the recipe for the book. My family might be sad when the recipes are all done and headed off to be edited.

After church today we helped Dan pack up and head back over the mountains. He made it home by 5:00 with clear roads and good weather. After we waved goodbye to Dan we jumped in the car and headed to friends for lunch. That was a nice unexpected treat after all the cooking in my kitchen this Thanksgiving weekend.

A few more days are left in the November Grace Challenge and I’m so grateful to God for family, friends, and food. I’m thankful we can share at our table. And when the dishes are cleared I’m thankful for a dishwasher that scrubs away and a friend that will scrub the items that can’t go in the dishwasher.

Here and There…

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with Dave, Beth, Jamie, Sarly, Raelynd, BIL Steve, my sister Lana, and our son Dan yesterday in the Pacific Northwest.  Our son Josh and Laura were celebrating with Laura’s family just a few miles away from us. Our daughter Katie called from their celebration with Son-in-law Andrew’s folks in the middle of Florida.

I nabbed this photo off facebook of part of my family enjoying their feast in Dallas, Texas. My sister Kathy’s family drove from Southern California to Texas to spend time with my brother Leonard’s family.

Then I nabbed this photo of my mom and dad enjoying their Thanksgiving feast with my sister Vera’s family in Huntington Beach, California. I really love that my dad has his napkin tucked into his waist. I can almost hear his voice and I know he is praising God and being thankful to Him for his family gathered around that table and scattered all over the U.S.

My brother Tim and SIL Letty joined them. My brother Steve’s family drove from Southern California to Arizona to celebrate with my SIL Kelly’s family. Dear’s brother Terry’s family celebrated in Fullerton, California.

Here there and everywhere we all joined in being thankful to God for all “he did to us” over the years!

Happy Thanksgiving to All in the U.S.A.

Psalm 28:7 ~

The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
and I will give thanks to him in song.

Господь–крепость моя и щит мой; на Него уповало сердце мое, и Он помог мне, и возрадовалось сердце мое; и я прославлю Его песнью моею.

At our house all the usual suspects will arrive and we will eat traditionally with one or two surprises thrown in.

My 2009 sentiments remain the same for 2012, too. Hope you are all enjoying the many blessings that God has showered our nation with.

People Of Grace

Yesterday my brother shared a post about People of Grace in his life and it inspired me to do the same. He also noted these were “People God has deliberately put in your life”. The first people I thought of were my birth family and extended family.

Dear’s side of our family. (Photo by Jeremy Leffel)

My side or our family. (Photo by Jeremy Leffel)

Over the years different siblings have played a more significant role in extending me grace. For my “Washington” years my youngest siblings have been the most consistent grace givers in my life with lots of phone calls and touches in my life.

The next obvious grace giver in my life is my Dear.

I’m very thankful to God that my children have extended me grace over the years for my failures in parenting. They are a huge encouragement to me. (Photo by Jeremy Leffel)

Now I start looking outside my family circle and consider others along the way that God has used in my life and blessed my life with. Maybe they also were those who God used to sharpen me. Those who challenged me to become more Christ like by words and example. Of course these friendships only remain if that grace is extended both ways.

Some of my earliest good friendships started in junior high with Nanc and Judy. Just before Dear and I moved back to Washington I was able to reconnect with Nanc through Facebook and we got together a few times. I’m happy that God brought Nanc back into my life and we were able to fill in the gaps of what had happened to us over the last 40 years.

Heidi my best buddy from Bethany Baptist Church and Jeanie my best buddy from Cal-State L.A. Jeanie ended up marrying my cousin Jim. I love how God brought the 3 of us and our hubbies to a close friendship with each other.

When we moved to Washington away from both Dear and my families my dear friends and walking buddies Jan and Jody were the grace givers in my life. They became family to me.  We all attended the same church and we went on a few great vacations together. We supported each other through thick and thin and through a lot of suffering.

Our son Dan became best friends with this young man, Jamie, in grade school and through Dan and Jamie’s friendship a grace giving friendship was formed between Jamie’s parents and us.  Beth and Dave along with Jamie’s family will be joining us for our Thanksgiving celebration next week. Grace friendships are enduring friendships.

Most of my early and mid life friendships and encounters with Grace givers in my life came from junior high, high school, college, church friends, and neighbors. Now God has used another means to deliberately put people in my life. I’m still amazed at the friendships and grace givers God has given me through the internet.

My dear friend and walking buddy from Camarillo, Willow. We met through our mutual blogs and then were brave enough to meet over coffee in person. God had this friendship in mind for us and after that coffee meeting we walked regularly every week for the years Dear and I lived in Camarillo.  I miss my walking buddy and grace giver, Willow.

Another internet miracle of grace God has given me are the Mennonite Girls. God deliberately plopped me in the middle of this group of ladies. I’m thankful to God for these girls that have filled in the gaps of friendship for me. They are true grace givers and sharpeners in my life.

I have so many other bloggy friends that are gracious to me and encourage me. I’m thankful to God for using their words on their blogs to sharpen me and inspire me to be more Christlike. Pam, Cori, Karin, Rosemary, Pondside, Kathie, Sandy, Kathleen, Miss Debbie, Rosella, LaDonna, Karen, Elle, Lisa, Vee, Sara, Ann, Wendy, Jill, Pat, Gumbo Lily and more…thank you so much for sharing God’s grace in your lives and extending that grace to me.

Grace Challenge Continues

The Grace Challenge continues and I am thankful to God that I can enjoy soccer with our son and daughter in law!

The Seattle Sounders won their game tonight which means they’ll be going to the Western Conference Finals against L.A. Galaxy. We are so excited here in Seattle.

On Thursday I was able to mow the lawn because we’ve had a couple dry days. It really was mostly mowing leaves and I filled every bin we have. We are going to have to buy those yard waste bags that Home Depot sells to pick up the rest of the leaves.  Friday is going to be cold around here with the high in the 40’s. It’s clear and cold and beautiful. Hows the end of your week going?

Speaking of the Grace Challenge this guest post was really good to read today!

Looking Back at Fall Scapes…

I’m busy thinking about the last few recipes I need to complete for our new cookbook. I’m also beginning to make plans for our Thanksgiving celebration.

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Our son Dan will be making the trek across the mountains over Snoqualmie Pass to join us for Thanksgiving.

We decided to invite mutual friends of Dan’s and ours for our time together. With our friends and with my sister and husband there will be 10 of us.

Josh and Laura will be celebrating with Laura’s family this year. Those of you with married kids will understand the every other year concept for holidays.

Katie and Andrew can’t travel far so they will be joining Andrew’s father and step-mom in Florida for Thanksgiving.

We have a fun get together to look forward to next week in downtown Seattle with some Canadian friends I’ll share more next week.

I made Osso Buco for the first time on Wednesday night and boy was it good. Did I just pat myself on the back? I love to order it when it’s on the menu when we eat out and decided to try it in my own kitchen. I’ll have to share the recipe on MGCC blog soon. I also bought Katie a fun little apparel item for the Marine Ball that she finally gets to attend this year. I’m mailing it tomorrow and I’ll let you know if she decides to wear it instead of returning it. I always include the receipt with my impulsive buys and have no problem if they are returned…

I’m thankful for people who understand me and my griefs and joys and my humor which needs some explanation at times. What are you thankful for and what are your Fall plans?

I’m linking with Cuisine Kathleen for Let’s Dish and hoping her power stays on in Long Island and that the Nor’easter doesn’t add any more damage where damage has been done! Praying for you Kathleen and others on the East coast!!

Inspiration to Shoot…

I’m thankful today for fellow bloggers who inspire me to look at the big picture and the beauty in the details. Karen at Ocean Soul is one of those bloggers along with her co-blogger Jukavo who inspire me with their photography.

Here are some of my artsy fartsy shots from Dan’s place…

This post and the rest of my posts in the month of November will be connected to the Grace Challenge I’m participating in. Here’s a quote from my brother’s blog about grace:

“Grace may be the word that best summarizes Christianity. In English, “grace” is connected to two other important words that teach us a response to grace: Gratitude and Graciousness.

Here is how it works. First and foremost, our life, salvation and everything in between is a result of the grace of God. Every breath I take is a grace of God. I cannot be saved apart from grace. Grace emphasizes and points to God as the center. Life is all about Him. He reveals Himself to me not by force, but by grace.”

To read the whole post click here.

I want to continue being specific in my thankfulness. I’m really thankful for digital photography. Digital photography affords me failure in photo taking while at  the same time giving me an incredible chance of shooting a beauty. God does the same thing for me through grace. I fail and he picks me up and He lets me try again and with His help He makes things good for me.

Hope your week has gone well. This weekend ends daylight savings. Don’t forget to fall back an hour!