Giving Thanks All Weekend

When we built this new house I told WGO that I wanted to be able to serve a crowd.  This Thanksgiving weekend  we got to see how the "open concept" floor plan works for entertaining.
On Thursday we served turkey and all the fixings to 17 of our family.  The girl's helped me do a lot of the prep work on Wednesday including cooking and deboning two turkeys.  Granted, I would have been to bed a lot earlier if we hadn't taken the afternoon to go shopping!  But everything was ready to serve at the designated time.  The two ovens really came in handy.  As I looked over at the buffet line as we were beginning to serve, I noticed steam rising from everything that was supposed to be hot.  Success!

Several years ago my mother passed the baton for hosting Thanksgiving dinner to the next generation.  I remember thinking how much I loved this holiday....until I had to be responsible for cooking the meal.  Let's be honest, ladies (and any men who are the chefs in their house) this isn't the easiest meal to put on the table.  Couldn't our forefathers have served a big pot of chili that first Thanksgiving day?
But this year I actually enjoyed it.  I don't know if it was because of the new kitchen or just that I have a few years of cooking this meal under my belt and have learned a few tricks

My brother and his wife from Portland, Oregan traveled to Kansas for the holiday.  They spent Thursday in Hays with Deborah's folks.  So on Friday, we gathered again to celebrate family with a nice meal.  My brothers came from Kansas City and Manhattan to visit.  Instead of serving leftovers we had ham, cheesey potatoes, and funeral dinner green beans.  My brother Ray made his awesome spinach salad and others contributed desserts.  Twenty-three people in all went through the buffet line around our kitchen island.  It was a very enjoyable evening.

Saturday morning, I went in to my mom and dad's to visit with my brothers and did some Christmas shopping.  In the afternoon WGO and I went out to Burns, KS to enjoy a bowl of chili with his sister.  It was a beautiful evening for a drive to the country.

I am not nearly as tired today as I thought I would be.  I spent most of the afternoon, (between loads of laundry), making Christmas stockings for the newest members of our family, Grady and Hadley.  I've made my Christmas "to do" list and I am actually getting a little excited.  Maybe the Christmas spirit will really take hold of me this year.

I am blessed.  God is good.

My brother, Kent and his family helped with the clean up!

The Beisel's enjoying the beautiful weather.

Too much turkey?

Hadley Ann and her daddy.

Grandma with her youngest grandchild, Tori.

Uncle John

MoMo, TiTi and Raphie

There was room for everyone.

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My mom and dad, my brothers and me!

Chili at Tabitha's

Frank

Ruby

Sunset on the edge of the Flint Hills

Zootacular

It is hard to believe that it is the middle of November already and we have been in the house two months.   It really started feeling like home when we got some pictures on the walls and unboxed other decorative items for the shelves.  I have found that the routine of life takes over regardless of where you live.  The secret is to train your car to return to the right address.

I did take a break from routine last week to go to the zoo with the "rainbow tribe".  Kayla and Hadley Ann joined us on the outing to make it even more special.  It was a beautiful fall day.  Cool enough so that the animals were moving but not so cold that the humans were uncomfortable.   Each of the kids got to choose one exhibit to visit.  Monica chose the penguins.  Raph wanted to see a crocodile so we went to the reptile house.  Trinity's choice was the jungle building.  There we saw the bats moving up and down a rope and a large blue bird flew down in our path and startled the heck out of me!  Kayla had never been to the tiger or gorilla exhibit so we headed there after lunch.  The tigers were moving!  We even saw one saunter into the water for some playtime.  We saw a Gorilla run across the field.  On our way to the exit we saw the meerkats, the hippos out of the water, the rhinos and giraffes.

As you can tell I really like to go to the zoo.   All the animals with their unique characteristics remind me of the awesomeness of my Creator.  What a wonderful imagination our God has!

WGO and I have been doing some furniture shopping.  We bought a love seat and chair for the den.  We also purchased  a new chair for the basement replacing the 27 year old "brown chair". We ordered a chair for our bedroom and updated the bar stools for the kitchen island.  I really enjoyed our Friday afternoon tour of the furniture stores and am happy with all of our purchases.  Our budget is now depleted so the rest of the furnishings will have to wait until another time.

It is time to think about Thanksgiving.  We will be hosting the meal for some of our children, my mom and dad and a couple of my siblings.  Then an Friday, more of my family will be in town and we will gather again at our home.  So I have lots of cooking ahead of me this week!  Megan, Grady and Laura are coming down Tuesday evening--the help will be appreciated.

I am Blessed!  God is good!

Hadley's first trip to the zoo.

Monica watching the Tiger

Trinity

Hadley Ann

Monica

My Zoo Pals

Ray in the Jungle

The Den

October Blessings

Wow, it has been two weeks since my last blog.  Either nothing worth writing about is happening in my life or I haven't had time to blog.  You be the judge.

October is always a little more hectic at work because of the Mission Trip pumpkin patch.  I'm in charge of the daytime workers and taking care of the daily deposits.  I worked several afternoons at the patch including three the week of Halloween.  There are several us who are really glad that fundraiser is over.

WGO and I have a tradition of eating mexican fare on Friday nights.  We call it Fiesta Friday!  You might wonder why this tradition got started.  It is because mexican food goes great with Coronas and Coronas go great with Friday nights.   Come to find out, WGO has some mad guacamole making skills! WGO invited a  co-worker down for Fiesta Friday.  Josh was a great sounding board for WGO throughout the building project.  I think Josh enjoyed seeing the finished project and we definitely enjoyed spending the evening with him.

As mentioned in the last blog we were making costumes for Hadley and Grady.  On October 27th we attended the K of C Halloween party at Church, Hadley as Pepples and Grady as Bam Bam.  It brought   back many memories of taking my children to the annual party.  It was definitely one of our favorite family traditions.  The cousins did not place in the costume contest.  But they are number one in my book.

Sunday was a special day.  It was the day of Miss Hadley's baptism. Surrounded by the people who love her most in this world, she was baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Sacraments are really special times when God enters into our lives for the purpose of showering us with his Grace.  They are times we when do something out of the ordinary that helps us remember what is really important:  God, Faith, Family.  Baby Hadley was a trooper through the entire ceremony.  Knowing how she can carry on when she is not happy,  I think both Mr. Lackey and Kayla both breathed a sigh of relief when we said our last, "Amen."

Following the baptism, we all gathered at our home for a celebratory meal. Joining my 16 for the meal were my mom and dad,  my sister Nancy, my sister Judy and her husband Eric.  Mr. Lackey's parents, Alice and Elmer came from Seneca.  And WGO's sister, Tabitha,  came from Burns. Fr. Mike also joined us.  We had a simple meal of taco soup and chicken tortilla soup with the customary garnishes.  Hadley's grandma Alice provided the desserts of pumpkin pie and/or german chocolate cake.  Monica and Trinity played the role of waitress, serving each guest their dessert.  After dinner Fr. Mike said prayers of blessing on our new home, sprinkling it with Holy Water.  It is our hope that all who enter our home receive God's abundant blessings.

I am Blessed! God is Good!

WGO and Josh, our first non-family guest

Grady as Bam Bam

Bam Bam and Pebbles in the costume parade.

Hadley, as Pebbles

Hadley being baptized.  (Trinity took the picture!)