Johnson, Party of Four: thanksgiving

yesterday was thanksgiving. i wish it was that simple... just thanksgiving. thanksgiving was the one holiday my dad truly enjoyed. he wasn't a big holiday type person, so the fact that he did enjoy this one has always made me like it a little extra. in addition to being thanksgiving, yesterday was also my dad's birthday. darn that. he would have turned sixty-three. even after six and a half years of him being gone, it is still hard for me to believe on days like yesterday. some days are easier than others and some days really smack you in the face with reality.

i've slowly been reading through the book, "one thousand gifts" over the past few months. yesterday as i would find myself in a sad moment missing my dad, i thought over that book, especially this part...

"God is always good and I am always loved.

Everything is eucharisteo.

Because eucharisteo is how Jesus, at the Last Supper, showed us to transfigure all things - take the pain that is given, give thanks for it, and transform it into a joy that fulfills all emptiness. I have glimpsed it: This, the hard eucharisteo. The hard discipline to lean into the ugly and whisper to give thanks for all things at all times because He is all good. The hard discipline to number the griefs as grace...

All is grace only because all can transfigure."

it is a truly great book. not a light or easy read. but one that i find myself reading over each page three times before i turn to the next, so that i can truly let it sink in. she writes beautifully. that passage was so right for me yesterday. saying so much about giving thanks and so much about finding the good in the places that we naturally see bad and feel pain. it's a great passage for me to think of all the time, everyday, but it was just so perfectly right for yesterday.

on a lighter note... here is a little bit of a thanksgiving home tour for you.

if you came to my house you would see that my favorite way to decorate for the entire fall season is with lots of pumpkins and gourds. we pretty much skip halloween decorating in our home and go straight to "fall" and thanksgiving.

the burlap wreath that i made last year hung again on our front door this year. no time to try one of the new ideas i had. which is okay, because i still love this one.

the kids' art display transforms during the holidays into their holiday art display. and we added the pine cone garland that avery helped me make.

i re-did our chalkboard. do you remember the old one? it was fun but i wanted something bigger and something that went with our home and the way we decorate better. the kids did a great job and had fun helping me with our thankful board. i just love these two kiddos i have.

now lets talk about food. thanksgiving food and cooking it!?

for those that are reading this and who know me you may be giggling about what i wrote above... the part about cooking!? yes, i did. i cooked it! like, from scratch cooked it. for so many of you this is no big deal. but if you knew me and my lack of cooking skills and fear of cooking failures than you know this is so huge for me. this was my first go at cooking thanksgiving dinner. luckily it was for just the four of us so i figured if it was a total failure it was just my little family and we could run out and get take-out somewhere. they'd be supportive and understanding. but you guys, it ended up delicious! i'm still kind of in shock over the whole thing.

avery helped me cook almost every single dish. she was great. she wasn't grossed out by the turkey parts and she wasn't scared of the hot stove top and she was careful and good at it all! maybe the cooking gene skipped me and went to her? best of all we had fun doing it together. while we cooked the boys watched football. that is another not usual thing in our house. but hey, we all had a great day and it all seemed so mmmmm, "american".

the only bummer about my great meal is that when we were finished eating bryan was so pleased he said something about now expecting this to happen more often... that i can no longer hide behind the excuse of being unable to cook.

too bad i didn't see that one coming.