Our First Thanksgiving

For some reason, it seems that hosting your first family Thanksgiving is like a rite of passage. Just like turning 16 and getting a drivers license or turning 21 and being able to drink alcohol, hosting a family holiday event moves you into the responsible adulthood category. I guess we're growing up. Ha ha. When we decided to have Thorne Thanksgiving at our house, we got a lot of "Wow, you're brave," type responses. Were we supposed to be afraid of this event?!?! Is it really that awful to have your family come over to your home for a day?!?! Should we be worried about what we got ourselves into?!?!

Now, the actual event was not scary. It was quite a bit of prep work and made for a long and tiring day, but it wasn't a day we had to "survive." It was a great day. Zach cooked & carved his first turkey and I cooked my first pumpkin pies. :) I think a lot of the fear that comes with hosting a family event is from two things: 1. when a family doesn't get along and the relationships are strained which makes for walking on eggshells the whole time or family fights. Not fun. The second thing is trying to meet the expectations - real or imagined or from memory - of what a great Thanksgiving looks like. Some families set the bar high and trying to cook a turkey "just like dad" or make pumpkin pie "as good as mom's" can cause incredible amounts of stress.

Were my pies perfect? No.

Did they taste okay? Yes.

Did anyone complain about them? No, they were just glad they didn't have to bake them.

One of two pumpkin pies from scratch

We really did have a great day. Everyone pitched in and brought a dish or two. It all tasted great! We missed the other half of the Thorne family but they got some much needed time with Papa and Grandma. (Papa's not doing well so I think he needed something to take his mind off his pain for awhile.) We got to sit around, talk, catch up, tell stories, play games and relax. And what's a Thanksgiving celebration without a game of backyard football! In the Thorne household this was pretty much a mandatory thing to do, especially since we have a big, flat, grassy yard! We split up teams and played a game. Mikey threw a TD pass on our team's first possession and caught one on our second possession that he'll probably talk about for the rest of his life. :) It was one of those days where I wish I could bottle up the smells and the feelings and open them up on a dreary, lonely, February day.

Uncle Dave (dad's brother) & Aunt Jody

Cal, Luke, Zach, & James, AKA "Cousins"

My ageless parents

Our First Thanksgiving smiles

Kyle & Katie - engaged

Travis is kneeling and STILL taller than Michael

carp faces

Dinner was great. Our menu looked like this:

Turkey - with secret seasonings that Zach wouldn't tell me. He researched for about a week about how to best cook a turkey. Love that boy!

Sausage & Sage stuffing - my first attempt at homemade stuffing. Pretty good. A little heavy on the sage though.

Corn Casserole - Aunt Jody's delicious dish

Green bean casserole - mom

garlic mashed potatoes - mom made a HUGE pan of these, and by HUGE I mean, she has a pan that's much bigger an a 13x9

mixed greens salad with tomatoes & feta - Aunt Jody's fancy salad

Dessert was the best. Aunt Jody brought pistachio pudding (so creamy & delicious!), I made pumpkin pies and an apple walnut spice cake, plus a few extras: chocolate ice cream, and carmels.

Okay. Enough about that. Let's just say there will be a few blog posts later on about several of the dishes I cooked up for Thanksgiving dinner.

Apple Walnut Spice cake with cream cheese frosting

My sister Amy is a sophomore at Concordia University in Ann Arbor. She plays basketball and she's an R.A. plus she plays her french horn in the band. Oh wait! And she goes to class! :) The girl is busy all the time.

Wednesday night, we (as in, my whole family) got to go to one of her basketball games. She plays on JV usually but varsity has been pulling her up with them quite a bit lately and Wednesday night was a varsity game at Alma College. She got asked to go with them but was unsure of playing time possibilities. Usually JVers get playing time in the 2-minute brigade (aka: the last two minutes of the half or of the game) or if the game is blowout. I was hoping for a blowout they would put Amy in and we would get to see her play. No such thing happened. Conco was down by 11 points at one point and made a comeback in the second half to win! It was an exciting game to watch and it was a bummer that Amy didn't get to play.

But don't worry. The Thorne family made an entrance! First of all, we were late.... surprise, surprise. We took up about 2 rows worth of bleachers, held up signs (the making of which caused us to be late), hooted and hollered the whole game. :) Whether she played or not, whether any family member plays or rides the bench, we were there to support her and she knew it. Take a look!

Amy's fan section

You can seen a sign that says, "Go Megan." That's for Amy's friend Megan whom we also love. My dad is holding up a program. Travis is holding a notebook.... that's because on the way to the game, Travis and Justin wrote a rap about going to this game. It was pretty sweet. After the game, the boys performed it for Amy and Megan. Zach, Justin, and dad did the beat and Travis spit out the rap. I have this entertaining scene on video and hopefully I can figure out how to post in on the blog here. You'll have to settle for a still photo for now.

rap practice

Amy & Megan

Amy and the boys - Kyle, Justin, Amy, Zach, Travis & Michael in the front

The Cheagle puppies are getting bigger and cuter! Their eyes are open, their little tails wag back and forth, and they are starting to play with each other. Out of the seven puppies, only 1 is spoken for so if you or anyone you know is interested in a puppy as a Christmas gift let me or my parents know. The adorable pups will be ready to go to loving homes right before Christmas! In this picture, you just have to imagine the little tan one saying, "You know you want me for Christmas!"

Wink! Wink! How can you resist!

My birthday was on Sunday. I went over to my parents house after church. Mom made chicken and dumplings. Mmmmm! It felt really different to celebrate a birthday with just my brothers and parents. Zach was working a parade in Virginia with his friend Josh and my sisters were all scattered. I guess after 24 years of life it's about time a few of my siblings couldn't make it. :) This year I will be exactly double my youngest brother, Michael's age. He turns 12 in February and I just turned 24. Crazy. Anyways, my parents got me the Three Wisemen set to add to our Willowtree Nativity Set! I also got The Band Perry's CD and a cozy new sweater.

24th Birthday with my brothers

My sister Rachel's birthday is coming up on November 30th so we celebrated her birthday after all the Thanksgiving festivities yesterday. My mom has this tradition of getting us 21 random gifts for our 21st birthday. It started when I was at Michigan State and I turned 21. Around my birthday I got this huge box in the mail from mom & siblings. It was stuffed full with all kinds of my favorite things and some random things: gum, hair ties, a jar of peanut butter, my favorite box of cereal, wine glasses, a coffee mug, CD, etc. We did the same thing for Katie. She got things like nursing scrubs and a wiffle ball and bat. Rachel was no different. She got pomegranates, dress clothes for her upcoming internships, headbands, and a whole bunch of other stuff. It's always great fun!

Font of Card: "I'm smiling because you're my sister..."

Inside of Card: "...and I'm laughing because there's nothing you can do about it!"

Rachel's 21st Birthday gifts

Siblings with Rachel - wow, there's a lot of us!

We have similar tastes -- and completely different color palettes.

Hope you've enjoyed all the photos and updates!

Love,

Sarah

Veteran's Day

For the past few weeks, I have been teaching my class about important American symbols such as the American Flag, the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, the bald eagle, and the National Anthem. I loved telling them the story of how our flag has changed over the years into what it is today and what the colors represent.

I loved telling the story of Francis Scott Key writing the poem "Defence of Fort McHenry" (Star Spangled Banner) during the British bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 and how hopeful he was to see our flag flying above the fort in the morning. (They all cheered when I told them we ended up winning the battle!)

I loved telling the story of how we got the Statue of Liberty as a gift from France to honor our country's freedoms and how she stands as a symbol of hope and freedom for all who decided to call our country home. (And why she changed into that weird green color. :) )

I loved teaching about what the word "Veteran" meant, what yellow ribbons signify, and how our Armed Forces are definitely heroes to be honored.

Ashlyn, "Thank You, Uncle Jeremy"

You are a hero!

Jeslyn, "My dad was in the army."

All this fit in quite well with it being Veteran's Day on Friday. The K and 1st grades at CCA put on a Veteran's Day program last Friday it's the cutest thing you ever saw -- if you were in the audience that is... the prepwork for that program is close to a nightmare. Every day we practiced getting up and down from the risers, how to hold a microphone, memorized lines, practiced songs, oh yeah ---- and tried to keep the kids from screaming at each other, poking, picking noses, crying and/or sitting down on the risers... It was quite an adventure getting 120 kindergarten and first graders in to some semblance of order! Then with Veteran's Day on Friday, 11-11-11, it's been an Red, White, & Blue filled couple of weeks. I hope these kids don't forget the meaning of these symbols and that they grow up PROUD to be United States citizens and Americans.

Odds are, most of them will forget (they're only six years old for crying out loud) and they don't have parents or other adults who will keep reminding and teaching them about what made America great. I can only do so much with these kids while they're at school but at the end of the day, they go home with someone else. Not me. And the unfortunate thing is that most adults don't even know. We've lost touch with our history and our roots, lost touch with our founding fathers' ideas & beliefs, and lost touch with our overall patriotism. We don't care enough to study our past and have no clue about what's happening in the present and we don't care because we don't think we can do anything about it ---or we want the government to fix everything for us. WRONG. Real change in this country is going to come from the bottom up. It's going to come from freedom loving Americans who are sick of the direction our country is headed. Americans who will take the time to READ and learn about what we can DO. (Check out Oliver DeMille's website & books for info on this subject, http://oliverdemille.com/)

When the Lord decides to bless us with children, I'll be done teaching other people's children. It will be time to raise our own. There's not a stronger calling in my life than to raise God-fearing little Patriots who will grow into the future leaders our country needs.

A special thanks to both my grandfathers, Luther Thorne & Ernest Palmer for serving in the Navy during WWII and the sacrifices they made.

Love,

Sarah