Thanksgiving is just one week away! Surely, we will take pause to be grateful for our many blessings. But we, like so many others, may also think about all of the work hosting a big family dinner can be.
This year I am forced to remember that it is also my birthday. (I am getting too old!) But, gratefully, my children are taking good care of me. In fact, although my house is hosting the get-together, everyone has pledged to bring something so no one person has to slave in the kitchen. Now, that is something to cheer about! (We always seem to feed ourselves well!)
My mother was a hostess with the "mostess." She loved to entertain. So, it was not surprising that she invited her parents from Idaho and her brothers and sisters living nearby in Utah to come to her house for Thanksgiving dinner. So what if her baby was due in two weeks. That shouldn't pose a problem, should it?
She worked all day on Wednesday mopping floors and making up beds for guests. She baked pies and prepared everything she could for the big meal the day before. Then she got up early Thanksgiving morning to put the turkey in the oven to roast. Dinner was planned for 1:00 pm.
My grandparents drove through the night and arrived at 6:00 am, just when my mother's water broke. My mother just barely had time to give instructions about the dinner and kiss my 3 year old bother goodbye before my dad rushed her to the hospital. I made my entrance into the world at 9:00 am.
After all of the hustle and bustle of the morning, the hospital staff took baby me to the Nursery to let my mother rest. My mother was not interested in resting. She was worried about her beautiful Thanksgiving Feast. She trusted that her mother would tend to everything well, but my mother was upset that she wasn't going to be there to enjoy it! Then, at noon when the staff brought her a less than adequate plate of hospital food, she begged my Dad to go home and bring her back some of her own fabulous Thanksgiving Feast --- with pumpkin pie!
Yup! And I have never had regular birthday cake on my birthday since that beginning. I always have pumpkin pie with candles on top! (Or nowadays, no candles. I don't want the house to burn down!)
This year I am forced to remember that it is also my birthday. (I am getting too old!) But, gratefully, my children are taking good care of me. In fact, although my house is hosting the get-together, everyone has pledged to bring something so no one person has to slave in the kitchen. Now, that is something to cheer about! (We always seem to feed ourselves well!)
My mother was a hostess with the "mostess." She loved to entertain. So, it was not surprising that she invited her parents from Idaho and her brothers and sisters living nearby in Utah to come to her house for Thanksgiving dinner. So what if her baby was due in two weeks. That shouldn't pose a problem, should it?
She worked all day on Wednesday mopping floors and making up beds for guests. She baked pies and prepared everything she could for the big meal the day before. Then she got up early Thanksgiving morning to put the turkey in the oven to roast. Dinner was planned for 1:00 pm.
My grandparents drove through the night and arrived at 6:00 am, just when my mother's water broke. My mother just barely had time to give instructions about the dinner and kiss my 3 year old bother goodbye before my dad rushed her to the hospital. I made my entrance into the world at 9:00 am.
After all of the hustle and bustle of the morning, the hospital staff took baby me to the Nursery to let my mother rest. My mother was not interested in resting. She was worried about her beautiful Thanksgiving Feast. She trusted that her mother would tend to everything well, but my mother was upset that she wasn't going to be there to enjoy it! Then, at noon when the staff brought her a less than adequate plate of hospital food, she begged my Dad to go home and bring her back some of her own fabulous Thanksgiving Feast --- with pumpkin pie!
Yup! And I have never had regular birthday cake on my birthday since that beginning. I always have pumpkin pie with candles on top! (Or nowadays, no candles. I don't want the house to burn down!)
For those of you who think preparing for Thanksgiving is just too much work, here's a song for you. This is "Too, Too Much to Do" from "The Adventures of Dick Whittington."
The cook sings this as she is preparing for a grand meal in the house of Lord and Lady Fitzwarren. She is chewing out her kitchen staff, particularly the new guy who accidentally knocks over the fancy food display.
The cook sings this as she is preparing for a grand meal in the house of Lord and Lady Fitzwarren. She is chewing out her kitchen staff, particularly the new guy who accidentally knocks over the fancy food display.
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