How blessed we are in this nation to have a day to celebrate together as families and give thanks for God’s goodness throughout the year. It’s one of my favorite days in the year and along the way we have gathered many traditions.
We began at midday with a big family sit-down meal with name places for 82 people! And even then, 21 of our immediate family were not able to be with us. And there will be more next year as the family keeps enlarging.
Because we originate from New Zealand we love to celebrate with not only turkey, but lamb. I cooked a huge turkey and a big leg of lamb (well actually mutton). Our son, Stephen, also brought two pieces of lamb. We have a competition every Thanksgiving and Christmas to see who cooks it the best. And forgive me saying it, but you have to be a New Zealander to really know how to cook lamb. Although once again, I rarely cook lamb. I prefer hogget (which is a one year old sheep) or even mutton (which is two years or older).
But, we actually had a lamb feast this Thanksgiving. Our grandson, Zadok, recently led an Islamic guy to the Lord, who now loves His Savior with all his heart. We asked him to join us for Thanksgiving. The night before he arrived with not a piece of lamb, but a whole, live sheep! Can you believe it? All the guys killed and dressed it at about midnight and began cooking it in an outside oven ready for our Thanksgiving.
We also had many extra dishes and after our wonderful meal and fellowship we began toasting which we love to do. It was a rich time of sharing God’s goodness and giving thanks to Him.
After this we moved outside. We were certainly blessed this year in Tennessee. It was such a warm glorious day. We usually have to put on coats and are often shivering, although we still never give up our traditions, no matter how cold. We were just spoilt this year. We began with our egg-throwing competition. Each person has a partner to whom they throw the egg. Those whose eggs broke go out of the game. The others move back so they have to throw it further, and so it continues until the last couple are left throwing quite a long distance!
We then have tug of war with the adults against the children--always fun. The children then have their running races, three-legged races, and sack races and so on which they love.
Now it’s getting later and time for dessert. Back inside for a table full of desserts and more great fellowship. After this the children like to gather around and share poems and Scriptures they have learned, etc. Toward the end of this time last night, one of our Above Rubies girls received a call from their family in Montana to say that her 15 year old brother was lost out in the wild. He and his sisters had been out hunting elk. They shot two elk, and he went off to find his but the tracks were covered and they couldn’t find him. He had been out for many hours and it was now getting late. We all gathered round and cried out to God that he would be found. Praise the Lord, before we went to bed, we got the news that they had found him. We were all praising the Lord.
We thank the Lord for another Thanksgiving and we’re already looking forward to next year’s celebration. And of course, wondering who else God will have brought into our family in another year. We already know of one as Rashida and Jack are expecting a precious little baby. They rejoiced to receive a honeymoon conception after their wedding in August.
~ Blessings from Nancy
P.S. This picture is from last year--our son, Stephen and someone else on the father’s side. These days the children are getting so big and strong that they are winning. I’ll try and post some up-to-date pictures for you this coming week.