Thursday, November 26, 2009

A Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving to All

 At the time of this writing, my home is redolent with the fragrance of freshly baked pecan pie and the magnificent (in my opinion) fragrance of cornbread dressing (or stuffing, if you prefer that term).  Yesterday, I cooked the celery and onions for the stuffing, and baked a loaf of bread, and the house smelled good, too.  Thank you, Lord, for the sense of smell... and taste.


My daughters'  and son's homes are redolent with the fragrance of baked turkey, sweet baked ham, yeast rolls, sweet potato pies, and all the foods our family tradition requires on this Day of Thanksgiving.  I throwing in a "ringer" this year by also bringing one of my favorite food memories of my younger days -- mashed turnips, sweet, and seasoned with black pepper and a bit of bacon drippings. My mama used to make this often, and I've not had turnips many times over the past 30 years.  This extra contribution can be blamed on Jim Sullivan, or Suldog, who gave me the idea in one of his blog posts.



Although the family numbers have decreased somewhat over the years, we'll have 18 folks for dinner today, each one bringing his/her specialty.  My daughter-in-law (the only one I have since I have only one son) makes an incredibly delicious carrot cake, and that will be one of their family's contributions to the dinner.


Gardening Daughter and her husband bought the home in which my husband and I raised the children, and which I occupied until about 18 months after his death.  It's a large home and has been remodeled to be even more open and accommodating of large gatherings. I warned my son-in-law when they bought the home that they were also obligating themselves to hosting large family gatherings, and thus it has been for the past several years, with smaller gatherings held in the homes of my other near-by daughter and my son.


It's time to check the stuffing to see if it's done.  

I leave you with one of my favorite seasonal quotations.:

Give us thankful hearts...
in this season of Thy Thanksgiving.
May we be thankful for health and strength,
for sun and rain and peace.
Let us seize the day and the opportunity
and strive for that greatness of spirit
that measures life not by its disappointments
but by its possibilities,
and let us ever remember that true gratitude
and appreciation shows itself neither
in independence nor satisfaction
but passes the gift joyfully on

in larger and better form.

~ W.E.B. Du Bois


Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

12 comments:

Hilary said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, Pat. Have a beautiful time.

Jinksy said...

I wonder if your turnips are swedes? In England, different part of the country seem to swap names! Either are delicious, anyway...

Snap said...

Pat,

And a very big and loving Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

PS -- I love turnips!

SunShine said...

Freshly baked bread…mmmmmmmmm! It is wonderful to be surrounded by loving family and yummy food! Happy Thanksgiving, Pat!

Jackie said...

Was today not wonderful...
Uhmmm....family and friends...and thankfulness for so many blessings.
Smiles,
Jackie

NitWit1 said...

Hope you enjoyed all the special dishes, but most of all family.

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you too. Hope you all had a wonderful day--and didn't eat too much turkey!!!!

Your turnips sound so good. I haven't had them in a long time either--and my mother used to make them. Save some for me. Okay????

We had a wonderful day and are now in the mountains of East TN--ready to do some hiking and waterfalling the next couple of days!!!! BUT--they are saying we may get some snow here tonight/tomorrow....SO????? Who knows!!!

Hugs,
Betsy

Peter said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you Pat. And thank you for spreading that spirit of thanksgiving around the world too on your lovely blog with your description of the day.

Arkansas Patti said...

My thanks is that I have all ready eaten or I would be drooling on my keyboard.
Sounds like you had a wonderful time.
Loved the message.

Sniffles and Smiles said...

Mmmm!!! I can smell your delicious cooking all the way here on the East coast ;-) Hope your day was every bit as beautiful as it promised to be!! I'm thankful for you and your friendship!! This was a terrific Thanksgiving post! I LOVE Du Bois' words! Love to you~Janine XO

Sherry M Peyton said...

Sounds like you have the classic Thanksgiving Day. How wonderful! Many many blessings Pat. You are one beautiful person!

NitWit1 said...

Wow! what a menu. We enjoy having dinner together at Luby's where we both chose traditional and non-traditional foods. I had spinach and husband had fried okra. He had ham and I had baked chicken leg and thigh as there was no dark meat turkey available.

It was nice to forego the cleaning house, fussing over cooking, entertaining and dirty dishes for a change.

My group of friends have decided to forego gift exchanges for various charitable causes of our own choosing. My husband and I have already chosen two and have at least two more to go.

We are buying and picking out our own present (one) so we don't waste money on unused gifts. Our house is full of them already.

And I am very happy with this. My nerves will not be frazzled and I hope to surround myself with the Spirit and reason for the season.