Thursday, November 29, 2012

Family Traditions #15: Thanksgiving 2012

"Family traditions give identity and belonging to each member." - James Dobson


We celebrate Thanksgiving all month long! This is my favorite holiday because it hasn't been cluttered up as much as the others. Now that the boys are old enough for conversations it makes it even more meaningful. We talk about what we value most and the One who has blessed us with it all. I really cherish this time that we have to shape our children's view of God.
The boys remind me now to light our memory candle every morning. We have so many good conversations at the breakfast table! I think anything that matters so far, they have learned there, ha! 

We talked about the Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving in 1621 and then the first official one in 1623. I think they both have valuable lessons we ought to remember. I made them props to go with the story. (Here is a great kid's version one that we read with them a couple times.) 
{Jonah wanted to be the pilgrim}
{This is me wondering why in the world I would give Silas a long sharp stick!!!}
They told me they wanted to make there OWN props! So they did!
 They painted the Mayflower!

... ok well we didn't get past the ocean and clouds since they do have the attention span of normal 3 year olds, but they had a lot of fun with that!!!

 We have been working on numbers lately, so we played a numbers game with the candy corn Daddy brought back from the States!
 They snuck several pieces during our game!
This year we did this over a couple of days, but next year I think it will be better to start Nov 1st and have each one of us list one thing we want to thank God for each day. Here is our list:
Our thankful wall will be on a chalkboard wall between the archway and my pantry, 
so picture this poster board there!

We made cookies for Daddy out of Fall shapes. Anytime we make cookies the boys always say they are "for Daddy!'
These boys are expert cookie makers!
I think Silas likes shaking out the flour as much as the sprinkles!
Look at that perfect pumpkin! Jonah is very meticulous about pealing the dough off around the cookie cutter. (There's a piece of dough stuck to his mouth... love it!)

Jimmy grew our pumpkins again this year! I shared before that our masons at our forever house decided to weed our pumpkin patch which killed our pumpkins, but my mom and Rob Hall both sent down more seeds, and they grew just in time for Thanksgiving! We had 4 pies already and there's more puree in the freezer!
{Pretty sugar pie sweet pumpkin}
 Silas is a little pumpkin pie eating monster (a la cookie monster) like his daddy!
 Jonah likes pie too, but Silas will fight his Daddy for the last piece!
We didn't get a family photo this year on Thanksgiving Day, but I did snap one real quick of Jimmy and me before we left that morning!
We are so blessed to have so many great people to share Thanksgiving with this year. Thursday we were invited over to Jim and Bonnie's. We have only shared a meal with them once before at Pizza Hut. They live in San Benito and are the directors here for the ministry, Go To Nations. Bonnie had a beautiful table set that I forgot to snap of photo of. Everything was just lovely. We had a wonderful time spending the day with them! 

I have to share a tradition that Bonnie and Jim have. They had printed place cards for all of us and on the back Jim chose a verse for each one of us... Jonah, Silas, and E too. We read them aloud at the table. Mine was III John 4 -
"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."
The perfect verse for me, motherly wise and ministry wise!
Sara and Jessie are new in the country. They will be here for at least 2 years, so we are looking forward to getting to know them better too!
Chris is the children's outreach director, he left before I took the photo. He was so sweet to play football with Jonah and Silas that day. They loved it!

On Saturday, Keturah invited all the English speakers in Petén over for a Thanksgiving meal!
We love spending time with Arlen and Keturah. They are moving to Orlando in March, so this was bittersweet. 
{The guys under the almond trees}
We had a great time of fellowship with everyone! We were laughing because the guys were talking about ministry and the ladies were talking about babies. There were 2 babies there, Anita is a midwife, and Sara is pregnant, so we had babies on the brain. 
{Chatting on the porch!}
{My kids with Jeffrey, Stephen and Brenda's oldest}
 Keturah made hats for all the kids. This time Silas picked the indian hat and Silas the pilgrim! My kids had as much fun that day as we did! Here is the evidence on our ride home:
 Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

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