All of my little ones are resting soundly after a full day and a very big dinner. Our first holiday in our new house. Steve never thought the day would come, but I always knew it would somehow.
The weather wasn’t as pleasant as we had hoped, our plans for a hike were called off. We kept cozy in the house instead. Iain was hoping for snow…we got rain instead. It’s been extremely mild here so far this year (global warming??). I can’t believe we are so late into November already. Iain is very concerned by the possibility of a green Christmas. Apparently, the thought is unbearable to him. He’s been itching for the snow to come back since late in spring.
We had a mostly lovely day today and I am satisfied. Nothing is ever perfect, and there was some unpleasantness today, but on the whole it was a simple, meaningful, and enjoyable occasion.
Dinner was lovely. My darling husband bought me a crock pot last night which gives me a lot more flexibility in my cooking. There are times when the wood stove just doesn’t cut it! We traditionally have red meat for Thanksgiving dinner as two out of five family members don’t care for turkey. This year was no exception and I made a lovely roast in the new crock pot. I used the mini-crock which came along with it to make the cranberry sauce which also turned out well. Elijah told me it was a bit bitter, but it didn’t stop him from having three servings! We had twice baked potatoes made with goat cheese and fresh herbs. The boys harvested the last of our brussel sprouts and we roasted them with home-grown garlic. My children simply adore brussel sprouts! I also baked a huge hubbard squash from our CSA. It completely filled all of the racks in the oven at the old house.
During the morning we prepaired food, and did little projects around the house. Iain worked on the cradle he is building with a bit of help from Elijah and I. Galen had a long and much needed nap, which left him in a wonderful mood come dinner time! As we gathered food and supplies from the old house Steve and I had our own private thanksgiving talking about all of the wonderful changes we’ve seen in the boys since moving to the new house and altering their diets. It’s really incredible to watch them blossoming in to normal, happy, healthy children again.
Steve’s mouth is still bothering him (he had several teeth extracted last week and developed an infection on the other side of his mouth as well) so he wasn’t able to enjoy dinner as much as we all would have liked. Everyone else enjoyed it to the fullest! Our spread wasn’t as fancy as it has been in years past, but it didn’t seem to matter. We all gathered around our tiny table spread with an over-sized table cloth. I scrubbed a youth seat from the old house and brought it up so that Galen, buckled in with Steve’s old belt, could sit at the table with the rest of us to celebrate his first Thanksgiving. The children crafted our centerpiece. A set of candle holders, made from slices of a birch branch and decorated with moss, dried flowers, indian corn, tiny sea shells and small pine cones. We ate by the light of their hand dipped beeswax candles. We all held hands and said our usual blessing, after which I talked a bit about some of the things we had to be grateful for this year. Our new house, the wonderful new soul that came into our lives, the love and generousity of our friends and family, and just the ability to be together even when times are hard. Iain added that he was really thankful for our friends as well.
Galen discarded his dried gourd bowl early on after dumping all of his squash on the table for easy access. He ate more then I thought a person his size could possibly hold! I offered him brussel sprouts for the first time and he thoroughly enjoyed them. By the end of the meal it was clear that every scrap of clothing would literally have to be peeled off his sticky body, but he sure was one happy baby!
After two large platefuls of food Elijah announced he was full, then proceeded to stand up on his chair and pull up his shirt saying “see, look at my big fat belly!”
After dinner we put on some yogi tea to cook, which filled the house with a wonderful smell. We played card games and sang songs. Dessert turned out to be rather unfortunate. Usually for Thanksgiving I bake my own pies, but with our cooking situation this year we decided to take it easy and pick up some gluten-free pies from Whole Foods. Everyone got a belly ache. Poor Iain was in a great deal of pain and ended up vomiting twice, after which he was just fine. Before bed he told me he was never eating “store boughten” pie again. And yes, I did manage not to giggle at his choice of words!