SO Much FOOD!

You know, I don't think the Pilgrims had as much food as we had at our Thanksgiving feast.

There were 20 guests packed into a house for one.

Beyond the normal turkey, we also had pork roast. Seven different desserts, most of those were pies--now how many pies can you think of? And two kinds of stuffing, two sorts of cranberries, gravy, mashed taters, two kinds of olives, my broccoli slaw salad, green bean casserole, broccoli and cauliflower casserole, corn casserole, crackers/cheese/summer sausage, shrimp and cocktail sauce, a veggie tray.

Quite the spread!!!

There was laughter, tears and lots of catching up with the family that had been away. Finding out that hardships have hit some of us, and blessings bestowed on others--of instance, one of our number has a new baby on the way, another in the family has contracted ALS. So the full realm of life and living has visited the family.

There was much bustle in the kitchen as the final preparations for the food were made and WAY too many good cooks in there, but all in good-natured fun and jocularity as we pushed each other about the small kitchen. It looked very much like the Visa commercial where everything seems to be running quite smoothly in a circle until the guy comes to the counter with cash in his hand and everything stops and waits for the guy to make his purchase while everyone else is waiting to swipe their card in the reader.

And then, suddenly, the food was on the table, and we all had to decide where we wanted to sit, as there were two tables, and no one could decide who wanted to sit next to whom, as the food chilled.

Having finally had a couple of folks make decisions, others finally made their way to a seat, and they asked me to say a grace before the meal.

When I balked a little, my mil asked her grandson if he'd do it, but he deferred to me, the one who usually says the grace nearly every year, and I finally decided that this was to be my calling, so I accepted, and instructed everyone to hold hands around their tables, and I closed my eyes and said the best grace I think I've ever said in my life at that family table. The words flew from my lips as though I'd practised for weeks, and they all came straight from the heart and my feelings of being blessed so much this year.

I don't remember what I said, exactly, but it just sort of dripped from the lip, as it were, and then there was a resounding AMEN, and we all started passing platters and bowls.

Then another person showed up.

I sampled a little of many things, passed up others because there were already too many carbs on my plate--I ate a lot of my salad, which is my favorite, and I had a small helping of the pumpkin and chocolate pudding pies. I also had a small bite of coke cake, but it was much too sweet, so I left most of that alone. Having had all that, my sugar was still only 129 this morning, which is good, considering. I was scared to check it last night, and I didn't sleep well, because a bug crawled into my intestines at some point--but I feel fine for the most part today.

I have to make a run for my mil's house to get my knitting, as I forgot and left it there last night, thinking that I would have time to get in a couple rows on the second glove. I did get some rows done on the start of it at the party yesterday, but not really enough to "say so", and by the time I got to my mil's after the big meal and visiting, I was mostly happy to sit down in a little quieter setting and unzip my pants and shove my hand in the waistband to try to hold in what I ate while I watched House with the family in relative quiet, while mom updated dad and hubby on the family news and proclaimed what a nice meal they missed, and the wonderful grace Tenna said, and how quickly things seemed to get picked up and cleaned up, and how nice it was to be home where we could all relax, put our feet up and rest from all the activity,

And today, we are driving to the mill to pick up our corn stove fuel--nearly 4 ton of corn which should last us all winter, unless Spring is really cold--and we usually shut off the heat somewhere around March/April. Our house begins heating around the beginning of November. Hubby likes to wait until the end of October has passed, but we had a few cooler nights in October, so we did start a little earlier than normal this year--but only for a couple nights. We really didn't start heating "in earnest" until November 1. While Hubby is gone fetching corn, I'm going to head over to MIL's house and get my knitting, then come home and clean MY kitchen, maybe put away some laundry and work a bit on the living/dining room by taking some of the things that belong downstairs in my sewing room. Then while I'm waiting for Jeff to get home, I'll get more knitting done. When he arrives back, I have to help him unload the corn, which is going to be really fun with my wrist acting up.

Tomorrow and Sunday are free days, and if I get everything done that I hope to get done today, I will have all of Saturday and Sunday to myself to knit like a fiend getting Christmas prepared. I only have a month left!