Hurrah for The Pumpkin Pie!

Actually, it was Squash! ~ We don't like pumpkin too much around here so we call it a pumpkin pie but substitute Butternut Squash for the pumpkin; most people have never guessed the difference!
  But that is supposed to be a secret, so if you ever come to our place for Thanksgiving, just pretend I never said that!
  I don't know about you all, but for me, Thanksgiving is the best holiday of the year! Why?  Because it is the herald of the festive season! It is the porter who opens the door to what I consider, the best time of the year, because it's the time, at least around here, people are thinking about others instead of themselves! How much better can it get to start off the festivities by being thankful for what we have already got?
   Someone posted a very wise question a day or two ago on her blog. (person shall remain unnamed!) I'm pretty sure it was a quote, though I am not certain who said it, and it goes something like this:
  What if you were to wake up one morning possessing only that for which you thanked God yesterday? 

   Rather scary don't you think?
       Of course this got me thinking about all the technical issues of such a plan, such did this include one's body? Or does it just refer to earthly possessions? What if you were just a spirit floating around because I doubt too many of us thank God regularly for a healthy body? What if we didn't thank God for an atmosphere...?
      But that was not the point! (those of us who are too logical often miss points!) The message is, that people are ungrateful as a whole, and most of the things we have that many people don't go assumed and unnoticed. - Actually, studies have shown that the more you have the less thankful you'll be and the poorest people are overflowing with thankfulness for what we would consider a small thing! America is the richest country in the world, and yet it has been shown that they have the shortest list when it comes to things they're thankful for! (I wish we would keep that in mind before we flourish  our mile long Christmas wish lists!)
     
But, I didn't start this post to talk about the depravity of depraved human beings! What I really want to do, is introduce you all to what a typical Thanksgiving is like for the Hellwig family.
  Sometimes we have guests - sometimes we don't - this year...we didn't!
(in all fairness, we did invite several people, but they all had different plans! It reminded me of the parable of the king who's son was getting married and he sent out his servants to bring the invited guests to the feast, but...they all...made...EXCUSES! ~ (I really am not applying this to our would-have-been guests, I understand their reasons!) ~ But what I really wanted to do right then, was finish the parable and go out along the highways and through the hedes and bring in the poor, the blind, and the lame, the alien (not the Si-Fi Kind), the widow, and the orphan! But that wouldn't have been practical, for several reasons, in this year of Our Lord Two-thousand fourteen...so, Ah well! )
   We did have our grandparents over though!

  But, anyway, back to the story!

 We decided to do something new this Thanksgiving. We filled a tall vase with sticks, twelve to be precise, and cut out lots of leaves out of construction paper using Arianne's set of leaf cookie cutters, (no easy task I can assure you!) punched holes in them and put them in a basket. Throughout the days before Thanksgiving, we wrote down what we were thankful for and hung them on the branches with green or orange ribbon!
                                                 "Mommy", was by far the most popular!
Next came "Cookies!"  - After all, what can be better? With Mommy and Cookies you have it all!
 Doesn't this look lovely? I love pies; we made four and if we had had more pie pans, I would have made more! As it was, we made one in a tart pan (not pictured here) because we only have three pie pans! - hmm...I'll have to remedy that in time for next year!
Arianne made an Apple Crumb Pie. By accident, she didn't realize that just a little poke while it was hot, would make a large hole in the crumb topping! - But it still tasted very good!
 There was lots of preparation going on!
 Plenty of dishes to wash, even before the festivities began!
 And we even tried to get a fire going, though we didn't have much success because there was a light misting rain falling all day and so instead of fire, we had smoke - Never mind!
 We still had the Autumn colors hanging around though, at least what there is of them down here, and it was quite peaceful and quiet outdoors!
                                     I spent a good portion of my afternoon folding our napkins...
                                                       setting the table...
              Writing out place cards, and things of that sort! (I wrote a silly rhyme for each person on the back of each of the cards, but I've no intention of showing you those!)
This is a very bad picture of how the table looked once it was set and ready for the food, but it really doesn't do it justice; you had to have seen it, it was simply grand! (At least I flatter my self that it was so!)
 By that time, Meme and Pepe had been transported, and I had to rush and whip the cream for dessert, as I had no intention of doing it between Dinner and Dessert! I'm wearing a no good apron, as both of mine happened to be in the Laundry! (That was slightly exasperating at the time...but this one worked!)
Don't you think whipped cream, whipped with Maple syrup like we do it, is almost the best thing in the world? It's certainly better than Ice-cream! (though I could get into seriously hot water with a statement like that!)
This was the brussel-sprout and bacon dish which mommy made, it was so good!
  Unfortunately my photographer did not get pictures of all the food so don't assume that everything you see is all we had!
 There was Brie; I hate it but everyone else loves it; so, behold, it is there!
 And this is the most popular dish on the table; if you ever have it you will become addicted to it too! It's........CRANBERRY ORANGE RELISH! - 'So', you ask, 'what's the big deal?' First, don't talk until you've tried, and if you want to say you've tried it, let me tell you right now, that there is hardly a thread of a chance that you have ever tasted our relish recipe in your life - Want to prove me wrong? Give me your relish recipe and I can almost bet ten to one that it won't match, even closely, to ours! - I'm not joking! :)
Here is how the table looked before we brought in the Turkey! (Once again, the picture does not do it justice!) You can see the crock of stuffing over on the left, and the buttered carrots on the right, but they were both covered and my camera man(who shall remain nameless) didn't think to lift the covers and capture the delicious contents so you have to take my word for it! (I'm pretty sure you haven't tasted any carrot dish so good as ours either!)
 'Here comes the bride turkey! All basted and brown!' Doesn't it look so picture perfect?
Here is the best picture we have of the table! - If you're wondering what's in the white pitcher, I will tell you; that, my friends, is the gravy! (There you have it even if you had no intention whatsoever of wondering!)
  And so we ate and drank and were merry for..........it was Thanksgiving day!
 This is how we looked towards the conclusion of the meal! Tobias made a piggy of himself with relish, and then, after proclaiming loudly, to all ears present, how stuffed he was, helped himself to more!

It was so nice to have everyone there and every gap around the table filled! I was disappointed that Sir Camera did not get picures of my Grandparents or any one on the other side of the table, but he tried; I shall be sure to instruct him better next time!
Then we (that is Elliot Jedidiah, Mommy and I) banished everyone to the living room, while we cleared the table and set it again for dessert! (You cant get enough pictures of whipped cream; I'm addicted to that delectable delicacy!)
 
 After we set the table, Timothy and I turned on some music and danced a waltz, then the cha-cha,(benefits of taking dance lessons!) and even mommy and daddy got inspired and danced too! (No pictures of that either! - I'm really glad I have what I do though!) Then everyone else got inspired and we lined them up and taught them the Virginia reel - That was fun! 

   After we had gotten our exercise, we descended onto the dining room to devour dessert!
 This is how the table looked after we had we set it!
     The pies you have already seen. It is time I introduce you to the rest of our spread!
First meet the chocolate pecan pie! (the one that was mention as 'not pictured', above, which we made in a tart pan!) It was very good and I liked it in spite of the fact that I dislike that popular substance called chocolate!
 Next make low obeisance to the crowning jewel of all Hellwig family feasts. The Baklava! (made with a secret ingredient, no less!)
 Give a polite greeting to Elliot's contribution to the menagerie! ~Sweet Potato Cookies! ~ nice and Autumny to go with the occasion! ~ They were very good!

   After Dessert, Mommy left to bring Meme and Pepe back to their place, and while the boys looked on Timothy and I danced the east coast swing
                                           Alright, we got one, blurry, picture! - Not so bad!

Then we watched a Charlie-Brown Thanksgiving when Mommy came home and after the boys had gone to bed we watched a grown-up movie with the grown-ups who were yet conscious after all the eating and dancing!
 Next Day, we promptly went out and bought ourselves a Christmas tree and said goodbye to Thanksgiving for 2014 A.D. 

But it was good in spite of it just being family, and I was glad it had turned out the way it did even if it didn't happen as I had wished!

   Maybe next year we'll have piles of people crammed into our little house. Maybe next time it will be sunny and we'll go out and play croquet. Perhaps we'll sing together in glorious harmony!

  But we only have now what our Good Lord has given us, so let us indeed rejoice and be glad in it!  We might not be here next year, maybe some will be gone. But we were here this year, every single one of us, and I'm so very glad for that!

I leave you now with a parting hymn:
I hope you all had as joyful a Thanksgiving day as I did!

  But I most earnestly hope that the contentment which Thankfulness brings is even now springing out of you like a foaming torrent that will not be stopped!