I Love You

I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always,
as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be. 

Thanksgiving Chile

Dear Nathaniel...Every once in a while, I will use this space to write a special story about our family. These will be stories that honor who we are, and how we got here as a family. This is one about Daddy and I, and our very first Thanksgiving day together.  I wrote it when I was back in college, and now I am sharing it here with you.

The Tradition of Our Thanksgiving Chile 

      Thanksgiving in my parent's home has always been a big event.  Ever since I was a little girl, I can remember watching my mom as she prepared for the holidays weeks ahead of time.  First, my parents cleaned the house until it sparkled.  Then my mom started baking the pies.  She always made several of each kind...apple, lemon meringue, pecan, pumpkin, and my personal favorite, cherry cheesecake.  I'd stand on my little stool in our big yellow and blue kitchen and watch her roll out the gooey dough.  She always let me roll my own too, and after she was finished she'd help me make cinnamon rolls.

     On Thanksgiving morning she'd get up bright and early to stuff the turkey and put it in the oven.  Then she made hot apple cider, buttermilk biscuits, pumpkin bread, banana bread, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, spinach quiche, salad and a cranberry Jell-o mold. She'd bustle around in our busy kitchen as relatives arrived from out of town to help her.  It was always fun for my sister and I to set the table with mom's most beautiful china, silver and crystal.

     Is it any wonder then, when we got married, we wanted our first Thanksgiving to be special?  Your daddy and I were attending college in Northern California at the time, but we couldn't afford to drive home for Thanksgiving.  At first we were a little disappointed, and then we decided to make the best of our situation.  It didn't matter if we couldn't go home for the holiday; we'd create our own special Thanksgiving together.  True, we wouldn't be celebrating around a table with relatives, but we could still have a feeling of family.

     We decided to go all out and make everything that our mom's always did.  We even invited two of daddy's college buddies over for dinner.  They couldn't afford to drive home for Thanksgiving, either.  Steve was like a big, lovable teddy-bear that was very gentle and well mannered.  Shannon was very quiet and shy until he got to know you, and then he opened up.

     Your daddy and I shopped for all of the ingredients together, and I made pumpkin pie and cherry cheesecake for dessert.  The day before Thanksgiving, Steve (who liked to pop in an out of our apartment randomly throughout the day) asked me if he could help out with anything, and I jumped at the offer.

     "Will you make the cranberry mold?"  I asked him, hoping he could cook.

     "Sure," he said, eager to help.

     Great! I thought. This will be one less thing for me to do tomorrow. 

     I carefully wrote down the instructions on a recipe card, and gave him a paper sack with all the ingredients he would need.

     "Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked, and he assured me that he could handle it.  I was grateful to him for offering to help.

     Thanksgiving day moved along smoothly.  Your daddy and I had fun cooking in the kitchen together, and we couldn't believe it when we were finally finished.  We had enough food to last us two weeks!  James carved the turkey and I set the table as Steve and Shannon arrived, carrying a paper bag.

     I could almost taste the fresh cranberry.  Steve pulled out a pretty corning ware dish, and proudly pulled open the plastic lid.  Inside were two cans of Dennison's chile, with four slices of cheddar cheese arranged nicely on the top.

     "Thanks, you guys!" your daddy and I chimed unanimously, a little bit surprised.  I didn't want to seem rude by asking Steve what happened to the cranberry mold, so we just heated up the chile in the microwave and arranged it in soup bowls for the four of us to enjoy. There wasn't enough to go around, so we diced some onion and grated more cheese until the bowls looked almost halfway full.

     We sat down to dinner, said a blessing and ate our first course of Thanksgiving chile. And you know what?  It tasted delicious!  Even with the smells of freshly baked turkey, stuffing and gravy wafting from the oven, the chile was a perfect way to whet our appetites for the more traditional flavors to come.

     Family traditions begin in many ways.  Our first Thanksgiving together got off to a somewhat unexpected start, but in the years to follow we've never dreamed of missing our traditional bowl of Thanksgiving chile. Oh, sometimes I make it the day before (over potatoes, with cheese and all the fixings) but we always have it to remind us of our very first Thanksgiving day together.

     All our love to you, always & forever,

Mommy & Daddy

xxxooo

  

Lemonade for Sale!

Dear Bugaboo...we have been busy packing our house to move into our brand new fifth wheel!  So, while Daddy was going through the attic today, he found this adorable lemonade stand. We have had this lemonade stand since you were just a twinkle in our eye! I got it through a "Sunkist" promotion and the company sent it to me for free!  Daddy and I saved it for a very long time, until you finally came along!  This was a perfect time to open it up, put it together, and for you to have your very first lemonade stand!  

Your friends, Shawn and Collin, came running over to help!

You had six whole customers! 

With your lemonade money, you bought an ice-cream from the ice-cream lady! : ) 

Daddy enjoying life, and a glass of ice-cold lemonade!

Our sweet family : ) : ) : ) 

All of our love to you, always & forever,

Mommy & Daddy

xxxooo

Vacation Bible School Fun!

Apostles Lutheran Church, July 2015

Dear Bugaboo, Not only did we have an incredible time at vacation bible school this week, but at the end of the week there was a super fun party, where you watched your first movie and tried cotton candy for the first time! You participated in the VBS children's program, and afterwards there was a movie night, complete with cotton candy, snow cones, popcorn, and a bouncy house!  You were in seventh heaven!  By the end of the night you had eaten four helpings of cotton candy, and you watched your very first movie on an outdoor projector underneath the stars. It was a cute children's movie called "Home." The three of us had an amazing time!  We are so very proud of you and love you so very much!!!!!

All of our love to you, always & forever,

Mommy & Daddy

xxxooo

Squirrel's Soup

Dear Bugaboo...We got the cutest idea from a friend to make pretend soup out of things we find in our backyard...like flowers and leaves. So, we decided to make "squirrel soup," for the little squirrels that live in our tree! We put water in a bucket, and started looking around for all of the ingredients in our yard. We collected grass, leaves, rose petals, rocks, and anything else that we could find!

You stirred the soup and pretended to taste it, and then we added a few more ingredients. 

When you decided that the squirrels would like it, we hung a rope over a tree branch and tied the other end to your bucket. Then you used the rope to pull the bucket up higher and higher into the tree. You had so much fun raising it up and lowering it back down again! And then you discovered that if you pull the rope hard enough, the water would splash out of the bucket! You splashed out the water again and again, and each time it spilled it made you laugh!  

This was such a fun activity for a sunny, Friday afternoon! Maybe next time we will see a cute little squirrel waiting up in the tree for us! : ) 

All of our love to you, always and forever,

Mommy & Daddy

xxxooo