Justin and I were pleased to host our early celebration of ThanksLiving with our group from church. I had gotten a bunch of the menu items ready last night and before Justin left for church he put the casseroles into the oven, set low. I had put the ham in the slow cooker this a.m. with a half can of ginger ale. Before I left for church, the house was already smelling wonderful!
I went to Bible study and worship on this, Saints Triumphant Sunday. One of my favorites of the church year, in End Times. I knew we'd be singing good hymns for our service, including "Jerusalem, the Golden", the 'old' melody. No matter which tune we used, I'd have wept through it. The mark of a good hymn for me, this one especially so for the pictures of heaven it paints. We also sang "For All the Saints" as a communion distribution hymn. This is in my top 5 favorites.
After church pastor reminded that at the end of the month is favorite hymn Sunday. I leaned over and told Mike that we had it today! I wouldn't be choosing any since I'll be gone but Mike said he was going to choose one in my honor and asked which one. I said, "Crown Him with Many Crowns" and he agreed this was a good choice. Chances are they will sing it anyway due to it being Christ the King Sunday, but I appreciated his offer and sentiment.
After the blessing, Justin left church because he was stopping at Publix to get a couple things for our lunch. He wanted to get pickles and olives plus the whipped topping I forgot to buy. My instructions from him were to leave immediately after worship, with no talking, which he punctuated with a chuckle. He knew that wasn't about to happen, but I did fairly well with my hasty retreat. I did so well, in fact, that I got home before he did!
We got our food finished up, the last thing was to microwave the potatoes I cooked last night. I had the butter and garlic ready to be melted and poured over the baby Yukons. I used my mushroom chafing dish to keep them hot at the table, thanks to the little candle in the bottom of the holder. Amazing what a candle can do!
We had our ham, sweet potatoes, stuffing, my green bean casserole, the baby potatoes, orange Jell-o (of course!!), cranberries, and the relishes Justin picked up. He also made some Grand Biscuits to have besides the dinner rolls I had. We had two pies for dessert, one pumpkin and one apple pie with caramel drizzle. Justin also bought ice cream to have on the pie, messing with me by getting 'organic' vanilla. Ugh!
From left is Terri, Mike S., Justin, Judy, Betty, and Michael
Everything was good, at least that's what the diners said. My plateful was delicious, especially the ham, potatoes and the green beans. We have plenty of leftovers so Justin won't starve when I am gone. He worries about me and I will wonder about him. One year at Christmas time he told me he was too lazy to go shopping so he ate many meals involving meatballs, taken from the freezer. Now he is sick of them. We don't want that to happen again!
