Thanksgiving Day

Six years ago our family started celebrating Thanksgiving Day at our own house, inviting friends each year to join us.  At that time, the Lopez's, our newly acquired friends who had just moved up here from California, were the first to come.  We're happy to report that my beginnings at cooking the turkey didn't poison them and they have come every year since.

You want to hear something goofy?  Even though I had been an adult for years, married with children, this transition to celebrating Thanksgiving at our house and being the one to cook the turkey felt like a right of passage of sorts...I finally felt grown up.  Weird, isn't it?

Some years it has been just our two families, some years others have joined us.  This year, twas the Coombs that joined in on the fun.  Here are some pictures from our day together, which at the same time share some of the traditions we enjoy.

The coloring of the Thanksgiving Banner:

We do birthday banners for each birthday and our first year together, as we were plotting ideas for our celebration, my oldest daughter suggested we do a Thanksgiving Banner.  Great idea M!  We've created one every year and the kids have great fun coloring it as you can see from this sampling...

 

The creation of the Thankful Chain:

We borrowed this idea from friends of ours...thank you Adams'.  We take some time to record all kinds of things we're thankful to God for on strips of Fall colored paper, sharing them with each other as we do it.  Then we tape them together to make a decorative chain.

 

Then we wrap it around all the children to take the annual Thankful Chain photo:

Of course, food is a big part of our celebration too:

Here is the girl's table, decorated by my young ladies with glee

The adult and little boy table:

Lots of good food to enjoy...

The littlest guy, our friend Owen, showing us all how to eat with a happy heart:

Agata, busy in the kitchen preparing one of our heavenly desserts:

Singing together:

Playing:

(here we see the three amigos with remote controls to race...can you say fun?)

All this to show and tell, we had a lovely Thanksgiving Day...singing, praying, feasting, playing, rejoicing with friends before the Lord who made us and gives us all these things to enjoy in His presence with thankful hearts.  This year was a year of plenty, but whether in times of plenty or in want our God promises to never leave us nor forsake us.  We were once His enemies, traitors and rightly awaiting His just judgment, and He sent His Son so that He might be both just and the justifier of those who believe in Him.  When we have Him as our greatest Treasure, we always have reason to give Him thanks.

From our family to yours, we end with this message:  Our banner this year had Hebrews 13:10-16 on it, which ends with "But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."  We have a Father who freely gives to us...as we journey through the holiday season this year, let us remember to imitate Him, by doing good and sharing with those He puts within our reach.