Before I get started in the kitchen, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on what it is we are doing out there in the kitchen up to our elbows in pumpkin pie and all the rest. We Americans are blessed to have a national holiday devoted to Thanksgiving, and it’s a wonder that it is still recognized. The obvious question that such a holiday should provoke is “Thank whom?”
Though Thanksgiving is not a day on the Christian calendar, it is still a very happy providence that He, our good and gracious God, arranged to have us Americans thank Him for our manifold blessings by sitting down at a table once a year and rejoicing together around an abundance of food! My memories of Thanksgiving stretch back to the shining white table of my mother with Dad standing at the head carving the turkey. Mom’s crystal and china and silver were polished and sparkling. We children were dressed up in our Sunday best. I can see it now!
Mom always started the day before Thanksgiving by making the cornbread for the dressing and simmering the turkey neck and giblets for the gravy. I confess that though I have made that dressing from start to finish (it also required cooking up bacon, sauteing the veggies, etc.), I have adopted the short-cut box of cornbread dressing now. But it is always cornbread dressing in honor of the way Mom did it. And I imagine all of you have certain protocols for Thanksgiving that date back to your own childhood, some jello recipe or special side dish that reaches back in your family tree of recipes. I always make at least one pecan pie because that’s what we had growing up, and it is undeniably fabulous.
My table never reached the same glory of Mom’s, but she set the pattern for me and always made the day a sweet one. Now my parents sit down at my brother and sister-in-law’s table with their children, and I know their table is loaded down with my sister-in-law’s loving preparations. I smile thinking about all the many tables across this country all serving up basically the same menu on the same day in November each year. Tradition is a wonderful thing!
So we thank God for His kind provisions for another year. We thank Him for sustaining us and keeping us from our infancy, childhood, and beyond. We thank Him for this wayward country that He continues to hold together with His hand. And we pray for Him to kindly turn us back.
And we thank Him for our parents, our children, our grandchildren. We thank Him for our warm homes, for the glistening snow and the shocking blue sky above it. We thank Him for abundance of food, for the cranberry sauce and the hot rolls and the steaming mashed potatoes. We thank Him for the pools of gravy splashing over it all. We thank Whom? We thank the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Have fun in your kitchens today! May you have a sweet day of preparation, so that you can rejoice around your tables tomorrow! You are bestowing an important memory on your children. You are establishing them in their faith. Don’t underestimate the powerful impact of a slice of pumpkin pie slathered in whipped cream!
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A Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!
It is SO good to give thanks!!
Seeing me in my separated pelvis pregnant state a dear sweet family from church invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. It’s very odd for me because I’m usually the one cooking up a storm and inviting family and friends.
This year, (and Oh how fitting it is) in God’s Providence He has seen to it that all of the family is doing something else (except for Geoff’s mother who will be with us), AND that my separated pelvis is hindering me enough to get me to slow down, AND the quietness and grace working in our hearts from the challenges of this past year, making it ALL work together to accept grace, friendship, love, and a bounty of yummy food at someone else’s table. Oh how thankful I am for this special blessing this year.
I do get to contribute with dessert and cranberry sauce. I am looking forward to making those pies! The sauce, oh how I love making my orange cranberry thick and chunky yummy goodness of a sauce. It’s actually very similar to your recipe that you posted here a couple of years ago.
May the Lord bless your table with His presence tomorrow, dear friend!
Thank you for this sweet reminder and your wisdom throughout the year! Happy Thanksgiving!
Beautiful and inspiring! Thank you! 🙂
Timely and True. Thank you!
Love it. The picture as well as the post. 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂
Beautiful dahlias! Thanks for sharing your traditions with us… we are all steeped in tradition, even the anti-traditionalists (don’t ever want to meet one of those!), which makes tradition such a vital part of who we are. And Whom we thank!
May your Thanksgiving table be blessed with stories, laughter, tears, and unutterable joy!
Thank you, Nancy, for helping us remember not just who we are thanking but what these efforts do to bless our loved ones. We want to make memories for our children to treasure and have them all centered on our common faith in our Lord Jesus.
Thank you, Mrs. Wilson! Happy Thanksgiving to you too! Your pie is beautiful. Your home looks very warm and inviting. I love the red door!
You brought me to tears today! I was just feeling totally overwhelmed with the cooking when I sat down to “escape” a few minutes.
Thank YOU, and Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson! You have been such a blessing in our lives and we count you both at the top of our list of things to be thankful for! Cheers!!!
Mrs. Melissa,
The beautiful pie picture comes to you compliments to Bekah. She is down in Boise with the Merkles, and when she read my post this morning, she thought it needed a picture. So I can’t take credit for the pie. It is one of her own lovely creations set on her table, not mine. (She is also responsible for the new Christmas header.) This is why I am glad to have my daughters share in the Femina fun….they add so much!
Blessings to you,
Nancy
A very happy Thanksgiving to you all, Nancy!! Thank you for your glorious post.
I am so thankful to be able to enjoy Thanksgiving with your parents, Nancy. They have been nothing but an absolute blessing to me throughout the years.