Thanksgiving Hodge-Podge

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. I actually prefer it over Christmas. I like the warmth of the holiday, the food, the togetherness, and the chance to pause and reflect on the many, many ways that God has blessed my life.

It's hard for me to narrow down my Thanksgiving memories to just one or two, so I'll just break Kim's rules and share many... (she'll forgive me and I know you will too!)

My mom always set a beautiful Thanksgiving table using fine china, sterling, and crystal. The table was almost as important as the meal. My job was always to make the placecards for our guests. I loved that job. I've delegated that job to Sarah the last several years. I was in the grocery store a couple of months ago, and ran into one of the first friends we made here. He told me that he still has the placecard that Sarah made for him one year. How sweet is that?

Growing up, I loved watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I still love it, but my kids have very little interest in it. I'm trying hard to hold on to that tradition, but I feel it slipping away.

Since moving to Colorado, we've made some amazing friends. It's been nice to know that if we don't travel for Thanksgiving, we have a "family" here to hang out with. Kirk and Kathy are some of our dearest friends and have been gracious to open their home and share their family with us when we've been unable to be in Arkansas. We love them so much! Here's the girls with Kirk two years ago riding one of the horses on their ranch.
I used to be a serious day-after-Thanksgiving shopper. I would pour over the ads and make my list and get up before daylight to get some AMAZING deals. But the older I get, the more I hate the traffic and crowds and shopping in general. So...that is one tradition I've let go of over the years. Thanks to those of you who endured those early morning shopping trips with me--Joan&Kim were the BEST shopping friends ever! I miss you guys.

One of our favorite traditions is going out to breakfast at IHOP...in our pajamas. We started this the year we moved to Colorado. We chose not to travel home for Thanksgiving and we were all feeling a little blue. John offered to take us to IHOP for breakfast in an attempt to cheer us all up. Someone suggested we just get up and go in our pjs, so we did and a new tradition was born. We haven't done this every single year we've lived here, but we've done it more often than not. It's fun! Sure, we get strange looks, but you know what, we don't care. WE think it's fun! This pic is from two years ago. Curly hair and no makeup! Yikes!

Meet Mr. Turkey...one of my favorite Thanksgiving decorations and the very best way to extend the life of our Halloween pumpkins.  I bought "Mr. Turkey" about 13 years ago at the Tate Barn Sale in Camden, AR, and he still brings a smile to my face when we pull things out of the box each November!

We're hitting the road soon, but I want to leave you with my favorite Thanksgiving recipes--cornbread dressing. It's my mother-in-law's recipe, and it's delicious! Thanksgiving just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it.


I hope you can spend some time reflecting on your many blessings this week. Happy Thanksgiving!


Be sure and visit Kim@DeliberateHope for more great Thanksgiving stories. And it's not to late to join the party! Just click the button above for details!