Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

I trust that everyone had a great day, filled with the love of family and friends.  We shared a great meal and did some catching up with the Perkins family today.

This is the gang (above) that was there for dinner. I'm right there behind the camera, as usual. I didn't want to take the time to take the picture with the timer while the food was getting cold.  I'm not sure why Terry looks so puzzled.  Oh well.

There were 11 of us all together, which is a small group for our family, but since our kids live out of state and weren't able to come this year, that reduces our numbers by 3. Both my sisters'other kids were out of state too and Dustin was at his girlfriend's house, which reduced the numbers even more. 

Left to right around the table: Terry, my brother - Pat, my oldest sister - Diane, Russell's friend - Sharon, my mom - Jaye, my sister Sharon's son - Russell, Diane's daughter - Lisa, Diane's ex-husband - Steve, my sister Sharon's husband - Steve, and my middle sister Sharon.   Kind of funny - 2 Sharons and 2 Steves in that small group.  Steves kind of run in our family for some reason.  None of them are Perkins', they just joined the family one way or another.

Here are the girls in the kitchen getting things ready. I was kind of surprised that we 3 sisters have so many different ideas about cooking the traditional Thanksgiving foods.  You would think that we would have all learned the same way, but I guess over the years we've discovered new recipes.  I did realize that we never really all cooked meals together with my mom when we were young.  I guess it's because when I was getting to be old enough to be interested in cooking my sisters were both already out of the house.  So now we get the chance at least once or twice a year to spend a little time in the kitchen together.

Our family never seems to be short on desserts.  In fact, we had 6 different desserts for 11 of us!  That works out to more than a half a pie each.  I think that's a bit of overkill, but we divided up the leftovers and managed to send it all home with someone.

Nothing significant about these peppers.  I just like the way they coordinated with the plate they were on.  Aren't they lovely?

This is a little bit of the fresh Cranberry Orange Relish that I made. I'm not a big fan of the canned stuff so thought it would be fun to try a recipe with fresh cranberries. It was so easy! Here's how to do it.

1 bag fresh cranberries (washed and bad ones discarded)
1 orange with the peel left on (washed)
1 apple with the peel left on (washed and cored)
1 cup sugar
Cinnamon, nutmeg or ginger (optional - to taste)

Throw everything but the sugar and spices in a food processor and chop. Place in bowl and add sugar and spices. That's it! This can be made 3 - 5 days ahead and it tastes even better.

I also added some of this same mixture to raspberry jello to make a cranberry jello salad. I think that was even a little better than the relish by itself.  But both of them turned out pretty good, I think. They're not nearly as sweet as the traditional canned or cooked cranberry sauce. The orange rind gives it a citrus tang, which I personally prefer over the ultra-sweet of the other kind. Try it sometime with ham too!

This last photo is a little centerpiece that I put together to transition from fall to Christmas. Fall items with Christmas colors.  The green apples are faux, but there are two huge fresh pomegranates in the jar as well.  I hope they stay fresh for a while. I love the deep red color of them.

Well, I'm planning to do a little bit of Christmas shopping on Black Friday. Terry has to work, so I have the day to myself. Not sure if I'll go out or if it will be online. I never go out early...usually sometime mid-morning.  As are most people, we're cutting back some on Christmas this year, so I have to be more selective in what I buy. It's hard for me because I like to show love by giving gifts. It's also tricky because Kevin will have to carry everything back on the plane and A and A are in a tiny studio apartment so don't have much room for anything of any size.

I just realized that this is getting pretty long so I'll close for now. I'm thinking about trying to journal about Christmas every day in December, but we'll see how that goes. Be sure to check back again soon. There's lots going on in the coming weeks.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I hope your day was filled with the joys of family & friends!

We had a relatively quiet day, compared to other years. We had only 7 here for dinner compared to 20 or 30 in the past. Amy & Andrew are in So Cal, Kevin is in the Middle East, my sister, Sharon is in Kuwait, Ashley & Russell were at Ashley's parent's house, Lisa was with the Strattons and Hope & Steve were with Steve's family.

So dinner time was Terry and I, my mom, Diane, Pat, Sharon's boyfriend-Steve and Sharon's son, Dustin. It was a nice group. Dustin was kind to put up with us older folks with no other young people around. He's growing up to be quite a handsome young man (see below). He's in ROTC right now and wants to be a pilot someday.

Steve was so sweet to bring Diane and I early Christmas presents (which he didn't need to do) but he's going to be out of town at Christmas and said he wanted to. He got us each beautiful serving dishes that we can use for entertaining. I can already picture when I'm going to use mine. Steve's so thoughtful. Sharon finally has a great guy! He's the one in the blue shirt talking on the phone. I wanted to get a picture of him on the phone to send to Sharon so she can see what he looks like when she's talking with him.

There are also pics here of Mom, Diane & Pat.

We were thrilled to get a phone call from Kevin early in the day too!!! We had been trying to figure out a way to connect with him, but weren't sure that it was going to happen. We had a chance to talk to him for a half hour. It was so great to hear his voice! We got to find out a little bit about what it's like there, although he can't tell us what he's doing. He says he might be moving to a different location, so he doesn't want us to send anything for Christmas until he knows his new address. I may send a few things anyway, just on the chance that he'll get them at Christmas. I'd hate for him to be without anything to open. We miss him.

Sharon called too and I got to talk to her for just a few minutes. She's a bit homesick and wanted us to take lots of pictures and send them to her. I'll be printing out some of these and others from our day together and sending them to her. We missed having her here with us.

We tried to call Amy & Andrew, but only were able to connect with them for a few minutes. We missed them too!

Ron & Bunny stopped by for a little while in the evening and we got to catch up a little bit on them and the family. It was great to see them.

Here's a picture of our nearly 24 pound turkey. I have this amazing recipe where it cooks overnight and turns out delicious...and it was!

This Grandma Perkins Pumpkin Patch sign always reminds me of Thanksgivings with my own Grandma Perkins and the extended family in Ohio. We would have tables and tables of people and food and homemade pies. I had so many cousins that I really barely knew many of them, but we'd all get together on Thanksgiving at my grandma's house for dinner and visiting. My uncle would sometimes go out and hunt rabbits after dinner (poor rabbits) and the cousins would all hang out together outside while the aunts and uncles would catch up on the latest family news.

I'm so thankful for all the blessings that God has bestowed on me thru-out my life and especially what he's sent our way this year. I trust that you're able to consider all the big and little things that God has allowed to happen or has protected you from in 2008 and thank him for his loving care. We serve a gracious God! Happy Thanksgiving!