Happy Thanksgiving!

Instead of blogging this morning, I'm finishing up a batch of my Corn Bread & Sausage Dressing (with varied color bell peppers, mushrooms, celery, onions and a bit of garlic) to take down to Lincoln for the traditional Aylward Thanksgiving dinner. While I'm at that, Claire is getting the ingredients together to make a tossed salad when we're down there. She'll mix the dressing there too using a raspberry vinaigrette with the Eureka Lemon olive oil from Devo. Superb!

On the way to Lincoln, we will be reviewing 2011 and using that conversation as a basis for our Thanksgiving Day prayers. It's been an extremely busy and productive year for Vital Signs Ministries but there has been a great deal of sorrow too with the lingering illness of my Mom and then her death in June. It's a year we won't forget certainly.

Dinner will be at Tim & Gaylene's (Tim is Claire's slightly older brother) and they always prove wonderful hosts. Gaylene is baking the turkey and getting help from her daughter, Claire, in making the pies. Other dishes will be provided from other members of the family who still live in Lincoln: brother Casey, brother Kevin and his wife Theresa, and sister Denise and husband Dallas. Also around the tables will be several from the 2nd generation of the family. Altogether, there will probably be around 20 so it will be a grand time.

This evening I have a little work to do in updating the Christmas version of "When Swing Was King" and we will probably try to fit in a few more pieces to this year's second Christmas jigsaw puzzle. But eventually Claire and I will settle in with some hot tea to observe a longstanding tradition of our own; namely, watching the original version of "Miracle on 34th Street."

We hope your holiday is every bit as enriching and fun. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.