"And when you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the LORD, offer it of your own free will."
Leviticus 22:29
A few weeks before Thanksgiving, Mrs. Whitson emailed and invited us to come down to their home for Thanksgiving. We normally celebrate Thanksgiving with our family members, but this year the Lord worked it out for us to be able to go see the Whitsons! :)
We decided to leave for their house Wednesday morning and to return either Friday night or sometime Saturday. We all packed up Wednesday morning and were out of the driveway around 11:30. (Okay, it was planned to leave around 10:00 but we underestimated how long it would take to pack!!! :)
We only stopped twice the whole 7-hour trip! That was pretty good for us! ;)
Anyways, our last stop was a Taco Bell for a potty break and some dinner! It was about 6:00 and we had a little longer to go! We decided to meet the Whitsons at their church for Wednesday night service and then to go to their house. We ended up getting lost trying to find their church...we tried Dad's GPS but it didn't work. (We later found out that we had entered the wrong church name!! :) So we ended up calling the Whitsons at least 3 times eventually meeting them on the road and following them to their church. It's much easier to find your way when you're following someone who knows where they are going! ;)
The church service was very nice and the Pastor preached on being thankful...it was a great sermon!
After the sermon and some fellowship we went to the Whitsons home!
We unpacked, with the Whitsons helping (thanks guys!) and got settled in. Daddy, Mr. Whitson and the boys then went out to "get some milk" and came back with pizza!! So, we ate again! :)
All of us were downstairs in the basement...it was so cozy and the beds were so comfortable (at least mine was! :)!
Lexi, Taylor, Abby, and I stayed up past midnight, playing LIFE, and then we went to bed.
Judah, Thursday morning before breakfast.
(Judah will be three months old tomorrow...Dec. 7th.)
Hannah and Taylor helping with breakfast.
For breakfast we had...
...scrumptious eggs and...
...yummy pumpkin muffins!
Mr. Whitson serving up.
Caleb and Michael at the breakfast table.
Thursday was such a beautiful day! You could wear a t-shirt outside and not freeze to death! The sun was shining brightly and a slight breeze was blowing...it was gorgeous! We ate a little bit of a late breakfast and since Thanksgiving supper (how do you like that, Whitsons?) wasn't until 3:00, we played outside for awhile.
(Now, I'll have you know that the Whitsons are surrounded by gorgeous mountains! I was soaking in all the views from their house!)
Lydia and Madelyn.
Madelyn.
Lexi and Abby.
Lexi playing on the Whitsons' tractor! :)
Taylor wheeling Josiah around.
All of the Whitsons were so kind in helping out with Josiah...they would gladly push him around for a little bit when he asked!
Lydia.
Nothing like dog kisses...
By the way, this is Nigi, the Whitsons miniature Australian shepherd. Isn't she cute? :)
Nigi was really loving all the attention, and Eden loved petting Nigi, so it worked out great!
After playing outside for some time, Taylor, Hannah, Josiah and I went and played ping pong.
Josiah watching the game intently.
Hannah getting ready to serve.
Ping pong is so much fun to play! We really enjoyed it!
After ping pong Mr. Whitson told everyone to get their coats (in case we got cold) and shoes on because he was going to take us for a ride. So, we donned our sweatshirts and shoes and went back outside. We soon figured out that we would be riding on a trailer behind his ATV. He was going to take us around some of the trials in the mountains!!
Michael and Caleb.
Seth has wanted a 4-wheeler...I'm thinking that he's dreaming of having one of his own in this picture! :)
Everybody (minus me) getting ready to ride!
Mama, Mrs. Whitson, Lydia and Judah stayed behind to hold down the fort for us.
Here we go!
Mr. Whitson took us on a trail and we saw some beautiful mountain scenery. It was lots of fun bumping over rocks and jostling into each other! ;)
We were about to U-Turn at this spot but Taylor and I stopped Mr. Whitson so we could get a picture! :)
Waiting for us to finish our pictures...
Eden.
After going on the trail we decided to go visit Mr. Whitson's grandma who just a hop-skip-and-a-jump away! :)
Visiting with "Nanny."
Nanny gave us all a hug and a kiss and some sweet tea and cookies. She was a really sweet lady and I was glad we stopped by to visit!
After a nice visit, we went back to the Whitsons house and finished preparing our Thanksgiving supper!
Hannah and Mama rolling out rolls! :)
We soon came to a break, so we went back outside. Lexi had dressed up in one of the Whitsons dresses and before we knew it Abby and Eden had dressed up too! Taylor and I had lots of fun photographing them!
I have so many pictures of Lexi, but I just picked one of my favorites! :)
Eden.
Abby and Alexis.
Josiah joined us as we took pictures...he was enjoying the fresh air and the chance to see something different!
Abby in a tree!
Who said girls can't climb a tree in a dress and high heels? :)
It was so pretty outside!
Best friends forever! :)
I don't get tired of rolling hills and mountains...they're so pretty! :)
Nigi decided to join Abby and Alexis' photo shoot...she added a nice flair! :)
Sometime during this time, Mrs. Whitson had set the table and it was absolutely beautiful! :)
I really liked the pilgrim-hat place settings!
Around 3:30/4:00 we started putting the food on the table. The Whitsons had made so much food that we had trouble finding enough places to put everything. I'm serious...look at this table:
Lots and lots and lots of yummy food!
Sweet potatoes and salad.
Seth and Michael with authentic Pilgrim attire. :)
The turkey!
The turkey was a whopping 22 pounds!! We didn't know if it would fit in the roaster, but thankfully it did!
Madelyn with her pilgrim-hat place saver.
Peas and greenbeans.
Corn.
Soon the prayer was said and everyone dived into the food! There was so many food options I didn't know what to take! :)
Eating...
Along with pilgrim hat place-settings the Whitsons had made pilgrim hat desserts! They made them by using the Fudge Stripe Keebler cookies turned upside down, adding a spoonful of white icing and then turning a peanut butter cup upside down onto it. The final touch was an orange tic-tac! :)
After stuffing ourselves and cleaning up the kitchen, we all gathered into the den. Through many emails Mama and Mrs. Whitson had bounced off ideas of what to do for Thanksgiving that would be other than the normal process of eating ourselves silly. They decided that we should write up reports about different subjects regarding Thanksgiving, memorize quotes from famous historical people (Abe Lincoln, i.e.)...you get the point.
The Whitsons had some pilgrim and indian attire, so Lexi, Abby, Caleb, Seth, Michael, and Eden dressed up which really added a nice touch! ;)
Seth was Miles Standish. Perfect character for him! ;)
Michael was some sort of pilgrim.
And. yes, Caleb was the Indian, Squanto, but later his hat of turkey feathers was exchanged for that of a coonskin cap. So, he ended up looking a bit like Davy Crockett. :) after toooo many hours in the woods:)~
Lexi, when asked what her name was, said "Uh, Squanta!" You know, like Squanto but in the feminine form...very funny, Lexi! :)
Here was the full "pilgrim/indian" cast! :)
Hannah, Lexi, and I then read our reports on various things relating to Thanksgiving and the Whitsons quoted parts of speeches George Washington, Abe Lincoln, etc. had quoted about Thanksgiving.
Josiah was enjoying himself as the reports were being read (or quoted).
After everyone had finished their quoting or reporting, Mr. Whitson read all of George Washington's proclamtion on Thanksgiving and took us through passages of the Bible where we are shown to set up memorials to remember all the Lord has done for us.
Washington's speech (
and Lincoln's) was amazing to listen to...they openly thanked and acknowledged God as the Giver of every good thing and that they were not worthy of any of it. How I wish we could hear that from our presidents now.
It was a good time! We had never done anything like this before (on Thanksgiving), so it was neat remembering all that the Lord has given us and realizing that we were not worthy of any of it.
Next was dessert!
The Whitson's aunt made this absolutely yummy Oreo dessert. It was so good!
Abby made this Cream Cheese Danish that was also yummy!
Turkey cupcakes! :)
Madelyn and Lydia enjoying their cupcake!
Cherry cheese pie!
After dessert, some people went to bed and some of us stayed up longer. It was around midnight (again) before us girls went to sleep...we talked while eating some more food! :)
Friday morning, Mr. Whitson, Daddy and the boys were planning on going hunting but it was raining so they ended up staying home and going later in the day.
Playing LIFE before breakfast.
After breakfast we watched some Duggar videos, ate some more food...you get the point.
Around mid-afternoon "the guys" prepared to go "bag us a deer". Unlike the day before, Friday was really cold, so they bundled up tight!
No, they're not robbers! ;)
Here Daddy and Mr. Whitson are doing the famous "deer in the headlights" look. I think they succeeded! :)
After some silly pictures and a prayer for safety the guys were off!
We then decided to go back downstairs and play some more ping pong. So, all the girls went downstairs and took turns playing, when a really funny thing happened. Abby was playing ping pong with me when all of a sudden she screamed really loud while staring at the concrete floor. She really scared Hannah and I! Hannah started running for the door and I hopped onto a chair thinking that, if something was on the floor, I'd be safer on a chair. The whole time we were freaking out Taylor just stood there and Lexi sat immovable by the portable heater (I'm starting to think Lexi is cold-blooded...she moves very slowly when cold! ;). When Abby stopped screaming we asked her, in short breaths, what had happened. And she pointed to a spider. Yep...a spider...the size of a quarter. I was expecting a huge hairy bear or something but, seriously Abby, you scared us for a spider?! :-D We all started laughing...that was such a fun experience! :) (We love you, Abby!)
Around dinner-time the guys returned freezing and deer-less. They were so cold! Some of them warmed themselves by the fire and others took hot showers, eventually thawing out of their frozen state! :)
After dinner, we decided to play Bible Outburst!
It was so much fun!
The girls were on one team and the guys on the other. The guys made it really difficult for us girls, but we managed to win the game (it really depends on who you ask, as far as who won...the girls think the girls won, and the guys stubbornly say they won. ;)
They look a bit stumped in this photo!
Madelyn and Lydia playing the piano for us.
Friday night we were determined to break our record of 2 A.M. so we stayed up as long as possible. We watched 4 episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies and it was so funny!! We loved it! :)
The fire was enjoyed as we watched the movies!
Eventually it was around 1:30 A.M., and I was so tired that I just had to go to bed...so, I didn't break my record! :) Maybe next time, Taylor and Abby! ;)
Saturday morning arrived too soon and we started packing up before breakfast. We managed to get almost everything loaded up before we ate, so we could leave not too soon after.
For breakfast we had pancakes...
...and monkey bread (along with some eggs!).
Sadly, we had to leave soon after breakfast, but we were thankful that we could spend the night on Friday.
Thank you so much, Whitsons, for all you did for us over Thanksgiving! You all were such a blessing to us and it will be a Thanksgiving we'll never forget!
After hugging and saying goodbye (at least 4 times), we climbed over suitcases and pillows into our seats and drove away.
A wall of rock that we passed on the highway.
Along with the sadness of leaving the Whitsons, I was also sad to be leaving the beautiful mountains!
Daddy stopped, after about 30 minutes of driving, at an overlook.
A piercing wind was blowing and it was really cold out, but Daddy, Caleb, Seth, Eden, and I got out anyways. I soon figured out that it was quite a hike to get to this overlook. There were steps up a fairly steep mountain that seemed to go on forever. I thought of turning back a few times but eventually Eden and I reached the top! It wasn't as pretty as I was expecting it to be (especially since I had to hike to get to this overlook) but it was still beautiful:
After some very quick photos, we just about ran down the trail. It was really cold!
The overlook parking lot.
We stopped at our Aunt Stacey's house around 3:00 and visited for an hour before leaving. We had Little Caesar's pizza for dinner before arriving home around 8:00 that night. We immediately changed into our jammies (after unloading the car) and talked over our wonderful Thanksgiving visit to the Whitsons, before going to bed!
So, there is our Thanksgiving Day report!
I must not forget to thank Mr. Jon for coming out and house-sitting for us while we were gone. Thank you Mr. Jon!
Delighting in Jesus,
Kimber :)
