Thanksgiving

We all "know" that Thanksgiving is more than the food, but it hit me harder than usual this year to be away from family.  Not only did the celebration seem wrong with the "wrong" people around, but the food was all wrong, too.  Granted, we had all the traditional fixin's...turkey, ham, stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, and pies galore, but they weren't right.  The stuffing wasn't made with the "family" recipe (or with Dad taste-testing the seasoning before Mom puts it in the oven).  The green bean casserole had to be made with frozen green beans instead of the canned, French-cut variety.  Mashed potatoes are hard to mess up, but the sweet potato casserole definitely wasn't Aunt Denise's version. 

And the ham.

I realized that ham will never be the same at Thanksgiving.  Aunt Ruby was always in charge, with her secret blend of honey, brown sugar, and only she knows what else.  Now that she's gone, the recipe is lost; I only wish I had paid more attention two years ago when I helped her put it all together.  I just didn't know...

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This year, we had the chance to celebrate TWO Thanksgivings.  One with our church family (well, the English speaking half of our church family, that is) and a second with our friends in the ACA apartments (where we lived last year).  I forgot to take pictures when we were at the apartments, but below are a few of Bailey enjoying her time with the rest of the kids on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, when we celebrated with the Schell's, our pastor's family.