Feeling Thankful

Our Thanksgiving day dawned, and immediately David and I set out to finish making pies. David was happy to have his fingers in the greasy dough. Originally I thought we could turn his ball of dough into "pie dough cookies"--pie crust with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top. But by the time he was done with the dough, I was more than happy to just throw it away.

 Here are the results--for the first time in my life, I made a pie in a pretty pie plate. I actually received the blue pie plate for my wedding from Sam's Aunt Lisa. The pie in front, on the right, is her famous peanut butter pie. She gave me the recipe with the pretty Longerberger pie plate for our wedding--"cornflower blue." Aunt Lisa is married to Uncle Richard, and he is a really funny guy. Six months after I was married, I was visiting Sam's family in Ohio. Uncle Richard and Aunt Lisa came over, and I was thanking Aunt Lisa for her peanut butter pie recipe. I told her, "I knew that I was part of the family when I got that recipe!" Uncle Richard apparently overheard me say this, and he spun around from his conversation, pointed his finger at me and said, "Hey, listen. You're not part of the family until I say you're part of the family!" It made me laugh especially hard because I have lots of memories of my uncles giving new in-laws or potential in-laws the same kind of grief about joining the family. So Uncle Richard, I'm dying to know. It's been nearly 6 years. Am I part of the family yet?

 The chocolate cream pie has a story too. When I was about 12, we were at Grandma Ray's house for Thanksgiving as it was our annual tradition. When it came time to serve pie, a certain chocolate cream pie turned up missing. Uncle John had drooled over his wife's, Aunt Lana's, chocolate cream pie all morning and he wasn't going to put up with it going missing. He lined up all the teenage boys on a bench, and declared that none of them would get any pie until one of them confessed to taking his chocolate cream pie. The poor fellas just sat there, none of them fessing up. Finally, word came from a back bedroom that all of the teenage girls were hiding away with the chocolate cream pie, just eating it straight from the pan. They didn't even pause to cut  it up or put it on plates--they just dug right in. By the time it was retrieved, there was nothing left but the crust. Poor, poor Uncle John. The next year Aunt Lana brought two chocolate cream pies, and so did each mother of those teenage girls. Aunt Lana started a great tradition, because now a chocolate cream pie will always be in the Thanksgiving spread.

David was at one of the kids' table. He tended to sit in the middle of the bench, and the other little girl had to sit on the very end. I tried to get him to scoot over, but that didn't really work out. The kids were done with their feasting right as the adults sat down. So they ran inside and played while we ate. It was a great arrangement! Note to self: Small children don't know how to overstuff themselves at a single meal, so they will always need dinner, in spite of how full I might feel from the previous meal.

We joined the Keith and Cathie Coombs family for the Thanksgiving Day feast. It was a whole lotta people, just like I remember at Grandma's house growing up. The only difference was that it was a gathering of friends, in lieu of family. There are lots of young families up here in Anchorage without any family closer than 3000-5000 miles away. So gathering together on holidays with friends is especially meaningful.

Cute Cathie had placecards for each of us, and we had a feather to write what we were grateful for. David is showing off his feather. He chose to write down "Daddy".

 Cathie's kids attend the spanish immersion school, so by homework assignment they made a pinata. It was such a fun after-dinner activity to break open a pinata. One of the dads was holding the other end of the pole, so for most everyone, we didn't use anything harder than a tennis racket (apparently David used a light saber). Not much progress with that. Finally, someone picked up a metal bat, and the thing busted open. I had to turn my head--the bat was scary with so many heads in an enclosed space. I'm glad that the only thing that went flying was the candy.

 Of course the kids loved the fun of it!

 And David was pleased as punch with his loot.

 I finally put up a thankful tree this year. Michael's made it easy on me by selling buckets of pre-cut foam leaves that were self-adhesive. I'm glad we paused on our feelings of gratitude.

It was also my first year of telling the story of the pilgrims and indians to David during family night. Instilling a love in my family for the sacrifices made by pilgrims and our forefathers to establish this country under divine guidance has always been a dream for me. I feel really good that this year, I gathered all of the materials, cut out paper dolls on a borrowed Cricut, and first researched, then re-told the story of the pilgrims and indians. I want my children to have lots of memories of their mother teaching them about the freedoms we enjoy. This was the beginning.