The Night Before Thanksgiving

No guest is scheduled to come spend Thanksgiving with us. God must have been behind this design because none of us anticipated that Tim would be working like crazy all this week. He had a deadline to meet today. That is enough stress for the family right now. He is done for now and we are just sitting here watching Myth Busters and eating Death by Chocolate ice cream. Just doing as little as possible.


Earlier today we did some preparations for the big meal tomorrow. I made sure that Tim has a good supply of eggnog. Shannon helped me make Overnight-Pumpkin Dessert. Apple pie is going to be made tomorrow- we like to eat warm apple pies. Miriam helped make the Fennel-Orange Cranberry Sauce. This is the same sauce we used last year. Since we do not have guest coming, I also went ahead and experimented on another recipe - Cinnamon Apple Cranberry Sauce. It turned out really good. We'll see how it will go with the rest of the food tomorrow (see recipe below). The dining table that is hardly used as dining table is ready for the feast. It is now set with newly ironed linens, beautiful Denby plates, fancy crystal goblets and a tray of fresh fruits for centerpiece. I'm still wondering whether we will actually use our silver ware considering that we don not have guests...why not? After all, Thanksgiving is one of the two occasions when we use them during a given year.

I realize that it is difficult to impress people and be grateful at the same time. Impressing, aka keeping up appearances, requires that we do and crave "above and beyond". It requires so much energy.  Impressing is all about other's opinion. Thanksgiving is all about gratitude. Thanksgiving is agreeing with the One who gives us everything. We acknowledge that He is good to us. With gratitude we accept all He gave us with contentment. Forget about what we don't have, and be happy with what we have. Since I am not busy trying to keep my house looking great for guests (there will always be something wrong anyway) this year, I actually have time to think about all that I am thankful for. I've been thinking about the people who God brought to my life. These are the people whom God used to change the course of my life.  For them I am thankful.