Goodness! Where did the time fly? December is here already! I know, I know, everyone has Christmas lights up, and gifts wrapped and whatnot, but I just got done with finals yesterday and I hardly had time to catch my breath. So this is a Thanksgiving post. A little re-cap doesn’t hurt anyone does it? I guess you can call this a “Throwback Tuesday” post instead of Throwback Thursday.

And I’ve been itching for so long to share with you the wonderful Thanksgiving my family and I celebrated. It was one of the best we ever had. Blessed with fellowship, good food, singing, prayer, family, friends and pictures!

We had quite a crowd at the table, about 30 people. And I had the delight of being event designer! We had lunch/dinner at my uncle’s house.

So come along and let me give you a tour!

All the decor on the table is made from scratch. I must confess I’m quite proud of it. I was so grateful to the Lord that it turned out exactly like I imagined it. Naturally I had many helpers to set things up too, so I can’t take all the credit. 🙂

The table runners are burlap stenciled with words like “fellowship”, “commune”, “gratefulness”, some words in Greek like “Eucharisteo”/Thanksgiving, and even a verse in Hebrew from Psalm 106:1.

“Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.”

Every year, my uncle has a Christmas light wreath up on the mantle, and it complemented my Thanksgiving chalkboard sign quite nicely. It was a printable sign I found on Pinterest because I didn’t have time to design one while studying and with upcoming finals.

My cousin and uncle were the turkey chefs this year.
They woke up at 4 a.m. to cook it! And they did a marvelous job!
In our family, people usually take turns making the turkey. Everyone loved how the turkey turned out.

My siblings and I drilled holes in some logs we had and made these rustic candle holders. I was thrilled at how they turned out, and matched the table runners and added a festive, cozy feeling to it all.

There were a variety of desserts. Apple, pecan, pumpkin and berry pies, chocolate cake and ice cream.

The weather was perfect, warm, and golden. A beautiful day to give thanks.

Care for a slice of mountain berry pie with whipped cream?

This utensil holder was another handy printable on Pinterest,
and I made it out of brown paper bags to match the theme

Fellowship, talking, eating and laughing

Mmm, the pies, lined up nicely on display. Looks like a little bakery.

And yes we had gluten free food as well, in case you were wondering. A little something for everyone!

I wish I could take the credit for this lovely cranberry sauce bowl decoration, but my cousin was the one who came with the idea from a recipe she looked up. Isn’t it so perfectly natural and fall-ish?

We also enjoyed beautiful music and singing.
I printed out a few thanksgiving hymns and made little booklets for everyone to use

We also had a collection of Thanksgiving verses from the Psalms. After dinner, we passed around the bowl, everyone got a little piece of paper with the reference and read the verse aloud. It was beautiful and edifying to hear words of praise and Thanksgiving from Scripture! I think this will definitely be a wonderful Thanksgiving tradition!

I don’t play the piano (sadly). My sister just took some pictures of me while I was fingering the keys just for fun.

And we ended the night by watching the Luther movie (we skipped a few short bad parts of course).
It was the perfect way to end a Thanksgiving night, by looking back in history and seeing how the Reformation came about.

I hope you enjoyed this small glimpse of our Thanksgiving just as much as I did sharing it with you! Check out my sister’s perspective of the day at her blog Jessica the Baker.

Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits

(Psalm 103:1,2)