What Giving Thanks Is Really All About

At 5:32 this morning I awoke to make stuffing and plaster the cavity of my pastured turkey with it.  I looked at the time and knew my mom would be doing the same thing 1400 miles away.  I picked up the phone and I called her and we compared turkey notes.  Hers is 15 pounds and she didn't want one that big, but it was the smallest they had.  I told her that's the beauty of eating your own turkey, you can pick the size!  (Ours is 12.5 pounds.)  My mom and I both love to cook, and we love to talk about cooking so it's a wonderful treat to talk to her in the early morning hours while we are both stuffing our turkeys.  I only wish she was seated at my kitchen table in her old kitchen, we'd probably deal a game of Phase 10 after the bird was in the oven.

My pies were baked yesterday.  Kiddo1 loves to cook and bake with me so we set up pie shop in the kitchen.  She made two of her own pies, rolled the crust and everything!  I have miniature pie pans that she uses.  She made one apple and one pumpkin and had great fun watching them bake through the oven door.  Then disaster struck.  Disaster in the name of her sister who dug her fist into Kiddo1's pumpkin pie.  There were tears and wailing and tearing of garments.  (But if there had to be one pie that was dug in to, I'm glad it was hers and not the 10 inch ones I made!)

The house is still a disaster work in progress, but I'm not killing myself to get it ready for dinner at noon.  "Welcome to our home, this is where we live.  I live with three children under the age of 5, watch out for wooden blocks and stick horses.  Be careful if you sit next to Kiddo3 at lunch, she tends to use her neighbor as a napkin."

My home is not perfect.  It may never be.  There is a mystery stain near the fridge that may or may not be scrubbed before my guests arrive.  The bathrooms have not been cleaned.  At all.  But they're still functional, even with the dust bunnies behind the door.

I know there are many people (and TV specials) that have spent a lot of time on how to create a "table-scape" for their Thanksgiving table.  Be assured, there will be no "table-scape" on this Thanksgiving table.  The "table-scape" on our table is the faces gathered around it.

We will gather here, in my box and toy-strewn house today.  We will eat food that we raised ourselves. We will play and laugh and visit.  We will remember the memories that this house holds for me and I will share those with my children.  I'm not promising that I won't cry.  I miss my mom terribly and the memory of my dad is so strong, particularly in the house he spent 69 of his years.

And that is what Thanksgiving is REALLY all about...here at THE FARM.

A blessed Thanksgiving to all of you!!