Feeling Very Blessed This Thanksgiving

Our day, just the three of us, was absolutely delightful.  I have to admit, by the time I arrived home from work Wednesday evening I was feeling pretty tired and the thought of making pie wasn’t really exciting me at that point but my youngest greeted me with that precious smiling face of hers and a great big hug.  I was renewed and ready to go.

She not only helped me make a pumpkin pie that evening but also two pizzas for dinner.  And the girls washed the dishes afterward!

I set the table earlier in the morning and put out all the stuff for cooking on one of the kitchen counters so I was prepared.  As I cooked and prepared things I washed up as I went along.  Even still, I had a lot of dishes and pans to wash after we ate.  I finished up my final sink full of dishes around 8:00 that night.

My grandma's pretty china, and glasses.  Her tablecloth too.

Doing chicken instead of a big turkey took a lot of pressure off of me.  Simply the fact that I knew I only needed to cook the chicken for about an hour and a half made a huge difference.  I marinated it overnight in some garlic herb marinade I had bought on sale last summer.  Then I put it in my grandmother's cast iron skillet that I had rubbed down with a little bit of bacon grease.  Yeah, that’s right, bacon grease.  Delish!

Rolls hot out of the oven.

Using her pan meant I could put it right on the stove, remove the chicken and make the gravy in it while the rolls baked in the oven.  Those pan drippings made the best gravy.  I mashed the potatoes while one daughter kept an eye on the gravy and the other made the stuffing.  We all worked together to get everything dished up and put on the table.

 

My grandma's pink divided dish.  She always fixed it like this so I do too.

My vegetable dish was super easy.  I put a bag of frozen broccoli cuts in a casserole dish and laid a box of frozen broccoli and cheese sauce on top.  I let it partial thaw on the counter and when we were ready to eat I put it in the microwave for five minutes.  After stirring it all together it was ready to serve.  How easy was that?

Look at all this delicious food!

We scarcely put a dent in all that delicious food which meant plenty of leftovers to sustain us through the weekend.  Those dinner rolls sure didn't last very long.

As I sat with my daughters at our new dining room table I was feeling pretty blessed and extremely grateful.  We are back in our home, surrounded with our nice things, warm and comfortable.  Our cupboards and our freezer are well stocked.  My daughters are getting a good education at school and at home.  I have a good job.  We have everything we need and a lot of the things we want.  We are healthy and happy.

My Pyrex collection got quite the workout storing all those leftovers.
We ate them all!

Yes, I am truly blessed.