The Thanksgiving that almost wasn't!

I thought first off I should post a picture of our turkey, Peeping Tom!  He was the father of our turkey for Thanksgiving this year.  Tom is going on three years old and still going strong.  He has curtailed his peeping activities and roosting, peering  into our bedroom window, and has succumbed to the warmth of the chicken coop with our other poultry.    He is such a delight having around the homestead.  His only bad habit is when ever Dennis wears bluejeans, he will slap at him with his wing.  We figured it out that the blue of the jeans, makes Tom think of another tom turkey, as their heads are blue.  I never have problems as I wear brown pants when out to do chores. Thank you Tom!

THANKSGIVING STORY
Well anyway, back to my story.  I got up early Thanksgiving day to ready the turkey for the oven.  One hour into my cooking, Dennis came downstairs into the kitchen.  Since he had been upstairs working on his computer stuff, I asked him if it smelled good in the kitchen.  He said it smelled like smoke.  I went and checked the turkey and it was OK.  Then Dennis went into the laundry room and found the washer with smoke pouring out of it.   I had been washing a load, that had my black pants in that I was going to wear that day.  The laundry room quickly filled with smoke, I unplugged the washer and we ended up having to shut the laundry room door and open the garage doors to air out the laundry room for several hours.  Now, how many times I have put in a load of laundry, and left the house to go shopping or what ever.  If we would have been gone, the house would have burned down.
We have had the washer fixed once before, and it is 8 years old, so we decided to go out on Black Friday and purchase a new washer and dryer.  Boy, did we have sticker shock.  Cost almost as much as our brand new Ford Pinto we bought back in 1974!  I told the salesperson, that I would pay more to get a cherry red colored one, as I said that this would probably  be my last washer/dryer purchase, in my lifetime.  He looked at me and said  " you don't look to be 80 or 90 years old!"  I looked at him and said What???? Then he asked me how long I think that a washer/ dryer last these days.  I told him that our first purchased washer/dryer, we bought used and was three years old and lasted us 20 more years.  We left the set in Big Lake, MN when we moved to Arizona.  He said that since everything is made in China, that these days I could expect appliances to last 8-10 years, 11-13 if I was really lucky.  Well, I did not pay the extra $200 for a cherry red set, since I will probably have to purchase another set in 10 years or so.   A throw away society to say the least.  So we had to brave all the holiday shoppers on the dreaded Black Friday.  My mind was busy calculating the age of all my other appliances.  Better save up my money.


So back to Thanksgiving, we had a wonderful time, with both Tera and Ryan's family in attendance. Tera and Brady stayed and visited for a few hours after Ryan's family left, which was nice for us.Here are a few pictures of that day.  Lily chilling out and watching cartoons.

Brady and Tera at the dinner table.

 

 

And little Katy looking particularly festive.

Thanksgiving prayer that I saw when reading Dear Abby that I thought was thought provoking for all the folks that have plenty.

 Oh, Heavenly Father/ We thank Thee for food and remember the hungry./  We thank Thee for health and remember the sick./ We thank Thee for freedom and remember the enslaved./   May these remembrances stir us to service, That Thy gifts may be used for others.  Amen.

More later.........................................................................................................................