Thanksgiving Dinner

November 22, 2018

We continued our celebration of the Thanksgiving visit of Jeff and family and Mark, and rejoiced that Brenda was able to be home to enjoy it.
Mark made it out a little after noon, Jordan had put the final touches of coconut icing on her 4-layer cake, so we were entering the final stages before the Thanksgiving meal.

We were very proud of the girls for pitching in and making the special salads and this lovely cake. Also of Darla for taking charge of the whole Thanksgiving meal preparation.

We were pleased that Mark had been able to spend time with the girls and come out for this day of celebration.

We were all very thankful to have Brenda home and feeling well to enjoy the day.

All our desserts were special. Darla had made a special gluten-free pecan pie so Jeff could share, Jordan had made the beautiful layer cake, and Barry Long had brought us the nice banana pudding.

Sweet in our memory were the caring visits of Elaine Ridgway, Janet Vineyard, Lalie Mode and Pastor Clint Miller along with many calls and notes during Brenda's hospital stay.

It was great to get Uncle Mark together with Ashleigh, Jordan and Elyse.

We greeted Aunt Sherry as she arrived from Woodstock, and she joined the final meal preparations with her nice hors d'oeuvres.

The final step before the meal was Jeff's carving of the turkey. Marty had gotten the turkey from their favorite butcher shop and Jeff had cooked it.

Brenda, Darla, Jeff, Elyse, Sherry, Ashleigh. I have to get a picture around the Thanksgiving table, but I always promise that it won't take long. When I sat down to ask the blessing, I had to share a special word of gratitude for having Brenda home with us.

Sherry, Ashleigh, Mark and Jordan. Another special expression of thanks for the wonderful work that Darla and the girls did in preparing most of the meal this year.

About 3pm Matt and Jan Thompson dropped by with their beautiful baby girl, Maverick. Jordan and Elyse got the first chance to hold her.

She liked being held by Jordan, and they soon got mobbed by everyone else who wanted to see her.

Brenda and Elyse get a chance to play with the baby.

How delightful to meet the youngest member of the family!

We appreciated Matt and Jan dropping by to share their beautiful daughter. They were soon off to visit other family. It was a blessing to see how well they were doing.

It was good to have some time to just stand around and talk. We don't get Jeff and Mark together often enough.

Friday, November 23

Mark came back out on Friday morning, and actually went out to get breakfast for us at Martin's. So we got to sit and visit over breakfast before Jeff, Darla and Elyse had to head back toward Louisiana.

If you are going to get more family pictures, you might as well have some fun with it. So we had a good time of fellowship on Friday morning.

We took one more family shot including Elyse before she and Jeff and Darla had to leave to head home.

After the above picture, Ashleigh and Jordan broke into a dance in the hall by Brenda's tree. It epitomized the statement I have made about my University students for years "They are old enough to be responsible and idealistic, but still young enough to be playful". They had certainly shown their degree of helpfulness and responsibility in their work to prepare Thanksgiving dinner.
We were at our time of goodbyes to Jeff, Darla and Elyse. We had our circle of prayer and sent them on their way. Ashleigh and Jordan got to stay another day to fly back tomorrow.

We enjoyed our extra day with Ashleigh and Jordan. Uncle Mark took them to the airport on Saturday afternoon. They took Uber from the New Orleans airport to their campuses. We look forward to seeing them at Christmas.