Quote from Forum Archives on November 23, 2003, 8:30 am

Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>

 

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THE HOPE CHEST

with Virginia Knowles

Tidbit #18 on November 22, 2003

Thanksgiving Hospitality and Ideas

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The Hope Chest is a free e-mail newsletter with encouragement and practical teaching tips. The writer is Virginia Knowles, wife of Thad, mother of nine children, and author of Common Sense Excellence: Faith-Filled Home Education for Preschool to 5th Grade, and The Real Life Home School Mom.

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Dear Hope Chest readers,

 

Before I get started, I wanted to let you know that after waiting 49 days, Lindsea Friesen had a heart transplant on November 20, and is recovering in ICU at the UCLA hospital (http://www.onewhiterose.org)  Thanks for your prayers!

 

My oldest daughter and I were musing recently about the big Thanksgiving feast we had two or three years ago for several Indian and Chinese students from the local university.  This was their first year in the United States, and coming from Hindu and Communist countries, American Christian customs were, shall we say, quite foreign to them!  Now Mary has a Chinese friend named Chen in college English class, and is thinking of ways to reach out to her.

 

This year, we are going to a big family Thanksgiving in the home of my sister-in-law's new parents-in-law.  I guess they decided that if they wanted all of their children home for the holiday instead of running from one house to the next, they'd invite extended families too.  So, they are hosting about 60 people!  We're all bringing food, and many games and activities have been planned.  (I'll be bringing pineapple cream pie, which is a can of crushed pineapple (drained) mixed with a small box of vanilla pudding and a pint of sour cream, then spooned into graham cracker crusts and chilled.  MMM!)  I know it is going to be a wonderful time.  The Strayers have been such a help and comfort this year during my dear mother-in-law's illness and death.

 

Today our church's womens' ministry did a Homes for Christmas tour!  The ladies all got to drive around and visit up to seven homes to get ideas for holiday hospitality and home decorating.  I rode around with my friend Debbie Klinect, her daughter Bekah, my daughter Mary, and another mom named Julie.   Some of the homes were large and elaborate, others smaller and simpler, but I was inspired by how neat and tidy each them were.  You could tell they had "homemakers" living in them who cared about creating a comfortable atmosphere for their own families.   When I saw the attractive bedroom of the daughters of Kim Sutter, I asked them in awe, "Is your room always this neat and pretty?"  They said that yes, they like to keep things looking nice, so they pick up the clutter each day, and do a thorough cleaning each Saturday.  (Kim Sutter is the author of the Sutter Studies units in the Rock Solid catalog at www.rocksolidinc.com.  It's obvious that she's taught her girls well!)  

 

At one home, I fell in love with Spinach Balls.  Here is the recipe:  Mix together 2 packages of chopped spinach (drained well), 2 cups Pepperidge Farm corn bread dressing, 1 medium onion (chopped fine), 6 beaten eggs, 3/4 cup margarine, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 1 tablespoon garlic salt, 2 teaspoons thyme and 2 teaspoons black pepper.  Refrigerate 1 hour.  Shape into small balls and freeze on cookee sheet.  Place in freezer bags or storage contained.  Bake frozen 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees until golden brown.  Yum!

 

Speaking of my "chauffeur", Debbie Klinect, she sent in the material for the rest of this Thanksgiving Tidbit!  Thanks, Debbie!

 

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Thanksgiving Ideas from Debbie Klinect

 

Thanksgiving is upon us, and what a wonderflu time that is.  It brings thoughts of lots of food, football games and family.  But I want to take you back to where it comes from and to give you food for thought this Thanksgiving. 

 

While in England, the people were going through a really rough time with being able to worship as they felt they were to worship.  There was the government who was saying one thing and the people who were saying another.  For their beliefs and secret worship, some of these people were put in prison and others treated badly.  That is what we would call persecution.  They were being persecuted for the way in which they wanted to worship.  We all know that several of the people decided to leave England and to start over in a new land.  They came to this land that we call America and settled and began a new life.  It was very hard on them for a lot of them didn’t know how to live in the wild and the winter killed many of the first pilgrims. 

 

Cook’s Corner

 

This month is dedicated to that fruit called the pumpkin.  If you don’t like pumpkin, try these any way with your kids and them share them with a needy person, homeless person, or someone who is very sick and can’t get out.  This will help to teach your child about sharing with others in need and also about community service.

 

Crunchy Pumpkin Seeds

 

Ingredients:

   seeds from pumpkin 

  1tsp salt for each cup of seeds  

 

Directions:  Preheat oven 350 degrees. Cut pumpkin and scrap out the seeds and pulp.  Wash the pulp off of the seeds.  Blot seeds dry with paper towel.  Spread seeds out in single layer  on a cookie sheet.  Sprinkle seeds with a little salt.  Bake for 12 minutes.  They should be dry and light brown.  Let cool.

 

 

Pumpkin Pancakes

 

Ingredients:

   1c flour    

   3/4c milk  

   1/2c canned pumpkin (or fresh)  

   1TBSP sugar  

   1 egg

   1 tsp pumpkin pie spice     

   2 TBSP  vegetable oil  

   1 tsp baking powder

   1/2 tsp baking soda 

   ½ tsp  salt

 

Directions: Beat all ingredients together in a large bowl until blended smooth.  Grease a heated griddle.  Pour ¼ c batter for each pancake onto griddle.  Cook until pancakes are lightly brown on both sides.  Serve with applesauce.  Makes 12

 

Pumpkin Soup in a Pumpkin

 

Purchase a large pumpkin.  Carefully cut a ring around the stem and take off the top.  Scrap out the insides leaving a one inch wall.  Separate the seeds and the pulp from the pumpkin.  Set pumpkin aside.  Roast the seeds.  Set the scraped out fruit in a bowl.

 

In a large pot, heat 2c milk and 2c chicken broth together.  Just before the boiling point, add 2 pounds of fresh pumpkin and stir it with a wire whip to blend.  Add 2 TBSP butter, 2 TBSP brown sugar, ¼ tsp nutmeg, ¼ tsp cinnamon and salt/pepper to taste.  Stir constantly, do not boil.  When thoroughly heated, pour soup into carved out pumpkin and serve with your favorite ladle.

 

Outdoor Walks

 

Since the weather is cooling off and the things out side are changing, why not take several walks with your toddler this month (maybe before their nap - the fresh air might help to tire them out).  On your walk, do the following:

 

Pick up leaves that have fallen and bring them home to make leave print art.  You can iron their leaves between two sheets of wax paper to make a leaf picture.  You can put the leaves on white paper and splatter paint them.  When you pick the leaves up, only the splatter print of them is left on the paper.

 

Pick up any pine cones that you may find.  Roll them in peanut butter and then in a tray full of bird seed.  Hang them for the birds.  Also, you can save them to decorate for your Thanksgiving table center piece or as a  Christmas tree table decoration.

 

Take advantage of the cooler weather and this time of exploration with your little one.  Look at our world through their eyes and see the wonder of God’s creation anew.

 

Thankful Turkeys

 

Help your child list some of the things for which he is thankful by using his hands.  Cover his hands with finger paint and make two hand prints on construction paper.  Once the paint dries, add little legs to the wrists of each hand and eyes and beaks on the thumb areas with crayon.  Help you child come up with eight things he’s thankful for, and then you write one on each of the eight turkey-feather fingers.

 

We Are Thankful song (to Frere Jacques)

 

We are thankful, we are thankful,

For so much, for so much,

On Thanksgiving Day,

You can hear us say,

Thank you, thank you.

 

In the line where it says For so much, substitute For food and Drink, and the words For books to read, and anything else you are thankful for.

 

 

Book list:

 

Maize is Corn by Aliki

Arthur’s Thanksgiving by Marc Brown

Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims by Clyde Bulla

Happy Thanksgiving:  Things to Make and Do by Judith Conaway

Molly’s Pilgrim by Barbara Beck

The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh

If You Sailed on the Mayflower by ann McGovern

Sarah Morton’s Day by Kate Waters

William Bradford - Childhood of Famous Americans

The Courtship of Miles Standish

Constance, A Story of Early Plymouth by Patricia Clapp

 

Scriptures:

 

John 6:11     

Ephesians 5:20     

Psalm 50:14-15    

Psalm 95:2   

Psalm 100:4-5

Philippians 4:6        

Colossians 4:2        

Luke 14:13-14