Countdowwn, Turkey Toss, One of Her Favorite Things

 Hello,

 

Five days before Thanksgiving. For us the holiday is focused on our church outreach. We feed about 1200 from our community: the homeless, first responders who are on duty, immigrants, and entire families. They come to have their photos taken, enjoy a complete Thanksgiving meal, access to our clothing bank, and a fun show that includes the gospel. Plus there are more than 400 volunteers.

 

We've been prepping for months and tomorrow begins room set ups. It's a grueling week but by the weekend, I'm so grateful to have been a part of such an amazing outreach. Something our family has been a part of for more than 25 years. These are from last year...

 

 

 

 We have Translators

 We'll have our family Thanksgiving on Friday. Sharaya and Ally will come over, we'll watch our traditional after-dinner movie and play games. And we'll probably video chat with Diana and Peter. Then on Saturday...

 

 This is what I plan to do all day! 😊

 

 Beth and I got our hair cut this week. Same styles, just shorter. I suggested we take a selfie together but she didn't seem excited about that idea. So I just took one of her, then took mine when I got home. She'll talk for days about everyone who will see how different she looks, "I can show my friends on Tuesday!" "My sisters will be surprised!" She loves getting her hair cut!

 

 We had our Third Annual Turkey Toss at work last week. The Executive Assistant comes up with the most fun and crazy events for us - the goal is to see who can throw a frozen, wrapped-in-duct-tape turkey the farthest. This year there was a Lightweight division, for those of us over 55 (and there are a lot actually!) I think ours was a game hen. Anyway, there was hot chocolate... and lots of laughter!

 

 See the blue dot at the top of the yellow tree? That's the turkey!

Some of them threw 29 feet, 31 feet! It was crazy far!

 

 

I don't know if you can make out the blue chalk inside the circle. They put our initials where our throws landed. And you see the traffic cone? Right there at the starting line? That's my throw. Yep, 4 feet. I thought I would try to toss it like I was bowling but it slipped out of my hand! There were no actual prizes, just the honor of titles like Highest Toss, Farthest Toss, and mine? I got Biggest Oops! 😂 I absolutely love where I work! We have the most fun!

 I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving. I pray no one is alone this weekend and that you get to share a meal with others. Whether it's with family, or friends or if you come to an outreach like ours, maybe with friends you haven't met yet. I'm thankful for you. You bless me more than you'll ever know. May the Lord bless you too!

Turkey Toss, 70, and No Surprise About the Winner

Sorry it's been so long. I've been thinking about you and hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

Last Monday through Thursday I worked 40 hours and walked more than 70,000 steps preparing for our Thanksgiving Outreach. We served 850 people on Thanksgiving Day! A delicious meal, great entertainment, family photos, games, prizes, then those that wanted to could go upstairs to our clothing bank. And everything throughout the day was free. Every year I'm a little more sore at the end of the week, but it really is a privilege to serve our community.

 

A few weeks ago our office manager decided to do a turkey toss. We all went out to the south parking lot and... tossed a turkey! I tried to hide in the back but I was spotted and called to the front. 😁 It was fun though! It was definitely the topic of conversation for the day!

This is me. Gotta love my good form! 😂

 

This was Diana and Peter's first Thanksgiving with us and he brined the turkey. We'd never had it that way but it was really good. The white meat was juicy and tender, like it was falling off the bone. Did you ever brine a turkey? Or eat one? We had all the usual food: green bean casserole, dressing, rolls, Sharaya made the mashed potatoes... for dessert I made an ice box pie and Diana and Peter brought a pumpkin cheesecake. That's something else we'd never had before. 

Then we played Mexican Train. Sharaya won. Again. She wins a lot and we always take the opportunity to tease her about it!

We ate way too much and laughed too hard! Exactly like time with family should be. I hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

Familiar But Foreign

For 25 years our church has served a family style Thanksgiving dinner to our community. We have about 500 volunteers and they help serve more than 1400 meals.

Well obviously we couldn't do that this year so we decided to make it a drive-through the day before Thanksgiving so people could just heat it up the next day. We spent a week cooking everything, putting it into containers and then on Wednesday, a few volunteers packed it all into bags and we put it in peoples trunks. When all was said and done, we gave away 2300 meals.

 Picking up the pies at Costco. This is one of two pallets plus about 20 additional pies.

Walking into church on Wednesday morning I felt that old familiar excitement, knowing you were a part of something so much greater than yourself. But the day sure was different!

Chuck put the turkey in our oven before he left for church, then Sharaya and Ally came over and made mashed potatoes... then we had our family Thanksgiving when we got home.

We FaceTimed with Diana, played some board games, and watched The Muppet Christmas Carol - that's a tradition at our house!

This was the only picture I took:

 Was your Thanksgiving different this year?

48 Hours

Chuck is getting ready to put the turkey in the oven (I love that I married a man who likes to cook!) and I've been dragging Christmas decorations out of the garage. For the last 17 years, Thanksgiving and the start of Christmas have sort of blended into the same weekend.

Thursday was a long, exhausting day but it. is. so. much. fun! Chuck and I arrived at 8 AM, got our name badges and gave each other a kiss. We barely saw each other for the rest of the day. He drives for the transportation crew and I am in the condiment area. I learned something new on Thursday.

I learned that it takes 4 people about 45-60 minutes to open, score, cut, plate and tray 43 pies. We served 1,296 pieces of pie that day! Along with the cranberry sause, pickles, black olives and rolls. I had a team of 12 people that were amazing! They worked so hard, bent over tables cutting and pouring and scooping. It was 6 PM when we cleaned up and walked gingerly on very sore feet out to the car. Chuck was just getting ready to take the last shuttle load of guests home.

There are a total of 500 volunteers that take family photos, work in the clothing bank, prepare appetizers, mash the potatoes and provide transportation. And everything is free. I am SO grateful to be a part of a church body that gives so willing each year.

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Last weekend Beth cought a cold. She stayed home all week, missing all of her activities and yes, even Thanksgiving. She was so dissappointed and we felt horrible for her! After getting her food handlers card, she was so excited about helping. Instead she spent the day in bed. :(

She has now developed a cough so I took her to the doctor yesterday. She is at the beginning stages of broncitis and is now on antibiotics. Not the best Thanksgiving she's ever had.

Today the kids are coming over and we'll be having our turkey dinner.... and decorating for Christmas.

Hope you all are having a great Thanksgiving weekend!