thanksgiving

I never remember Thanksgiving being a busy time in my younger years. I think each year since I was 18 has gotten busier and busier.

Tomorrow is the annual Helt Thanksgiving. I'll be heading out early to rehearse for Sunday and then back to the bread grindstone to churn out the 300 or so rolls for the family.

Euchre will commence promptly at 6 and you are cordially invited. I mean it. Everyone who reads this should come over. There'll be food, cards, football and drinks. And by drinks I mean some of my family will leave every hour or so for "fresh air."

Things to be thankful for:
1. Jesus Christ who made salvation possible
2. My family
3. Bread
4. Euchre
5. Eleanor Rigby

-joe

thanksgiving

well, thanksgiving week (yes, week) has come to and end. This is, by far, my favorite holiday of the year. It is probably everyone in my immediate family's(i don't know how to make family possessive) as well. (my sister, amy, blogged about it too...pictures included...check it out here)

Thursday starts with a round of turkey days. I start at my place (sometimes accompanied by a couple of friends) then off to my buddy Jump's family. Then off to see Nigel's family. Then finally settling in at Rob's family gathering. This has been tradition for nearly a decade. Sadly, as we have gotten older it has been more difficult to make it to all of these (marriages...grandparents leaving town...)

Ahh...then Saturday. Saturday is really the day that Thanksgiving revolves around on the Helt side. My Grandma used to have it at her place and there would be anywhere between 100 and 150 relatives and friends. It. was. in. sane. She made all the food herself (including her state champion pies). Sometimes she brought in an extra oven. It took her the entire holiday weekend to prepare.

She died 5 years ago this past August. Since then, the gathering has happened at my folks house and has been trimmed down, since we have a smaller house and we just don't feel like killing ourselves to cook for that many people. We still average about 50 every year.

I've been made the bread chef. This is for a couple of reasons. One, I am a voracious bread-eater. I am the current record-holder at 26, in one sitting, of my Grandma's famous home-made yeast rolls. No one has even caught site of the record (people usually talk of going for it and then buckle anywhere between 10 and 18). The second...I make a darn good roll. Seriously. They rival my Grandma's.

I made somewhere around 350 this year. It took forever. I think I may need another stove like she used to have.

Besides the food, the holiday is really great because of my family. They are wild, crazy and blunt. They are also all tremendous story-tellers. My grandma was the queen. She could weave a tale so great that we would forget that we'd heard it countless times before and we would still laugh at all the insane moments she made tall.

My aunts and uncles (and my dad) run in the same vein. My hope is to one day be able to tell a compelling story the way they do.

I hope your holiday week was a great one. I hope that you know the reason we can give thanks and I pray that you believe in Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, today.

-joe