Happy Turkey Day!

Today I am thankful for so so many things things. 


First and foremost my family. 


I am thankful that we can afford for me to stay home with our babies and raise them the way we would like them to be raised. 


I am thankful for the roof over our head, food in our bellies, and lots of love! 


I am thankful for two sweet baby girls and two sweet little lambs. 


I am thankful for an amazingly supportive, encouraging, and loving husband.


I am thankful that we have a yard to run and play in. 


I am thankful for infectious belly laughs, alligator tears, and big bear hugs. 


I am thankful we are healthy.


I am thankful to be able to craft and be creative till my little hearts content AND be able to share it with all of you!


This morning my good friend Monica (from this post) and I went to feed the homeless in our own little way. Our children are too young to volunteer at the shelter/food bank so we decided we would do our own thing. We each made about 36 turkey sandwiches, little baggies of pretzels, a bottle of water and a sweet treat to hand out to the homeless. The girls sat down yesterday and decorated the paper bags for us too! 


We stopped at ONE park in South Tucson. Desi (Monica's hubby and I) got out to hand out all the bags. She stayed in the car with the babes. We gave out 72 lunches and still weren't able to give one to everyone. There were at least 20 more people we could see that we hadn't spoken with. But we were all out of lunches. 


When we left we wanted to do more. So next time we will each double what we made and hopefully we can hit a couple more parks and the downtown area. I felt this amazing feeling come over me as we drove away from the park. People said "thank you" with tears in their eyes. As we were walking away from a group of people I overheard a woman say "I love pretzels!". To see their grateful faces truly made my Thanksgiving Day. 


One man said "I knew I'd eat like a pig today!" Which made us think, we really should do this more frequently. And we should do it on days other than major holidays. Because every one else was out this morning giving away food as well. While at the park there was a group cooking a hot fresh breakfast for the homeless. Which was really amazing to see as well! We are going to do this again in just a couple weeks for Christmas. And this time we will do it a day or two before Christmas so that they can have a few good meals. Instead of a bunch in one day. 


And here is what our Thanksgiving menu looked like like:


Turkey (of course!) brined using PW Turkey brine and seasoned using this Giada de Laurentiis recipe
rolls (purchased from this co-op)
mashed potatoes with gravy

sweet potatoes (using this PW recipe, sooo yummy!)

stuffing

roasted carrots

corn

cranberry orange sauce (homemade of course! using my own haphazard recipe)

salad with cranberries and almonds 

pies (apple, cherry, blueberry, peach and pumpkin {fillings made throughout the past couple months} with vanilla bean ice cream and real whipped cream)

a veggie tray to munch

a cheese, meat, cracker tray to munch

Other people brought:

Green been casserole

jello salad (my absolute favorite thing!)

macaroni and cheese

broccoli cheese casserole
cherry cobbler


After making all of this food, sharing it with friends and family, and sending each family home with a significant amount of leftovers. I couldn't help but think of the homeless we fed this morning. How they might like to have some mashed potatoes, carrots, stuffing and all. I had never done anything like that on my own before (well with a friend). I have volunteered at soup kitchens and done other volunteer work. But nothing where I was able to get out there and talk to people and truly connect with them. 


I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know we did!


Love and Hugs,