Family, Food, Faith, and Phlegm

Before getting started I need to say thank you.  A couple weeks back I shared my disdain with my son’s neighbor, a woman who struggles with paranoid schizophrenia, and the fact that her utilities had been shut off.  I also gave opportunity for you to respond in loving kindness and compassion.  And you did… to the tune of $965.  Heroes are not a thing of the past or only printed in comic books.  They are real and affect lives every day.  Thank you, heroes.  May your capes continue to flap in the wind and may the world be a better place to live because of your presence in it. 

As for me and my house, we are nestled under a quilt today with a hot coffee in one hand and a roll of toilet paper in the other.  Chap Stick has been laid out on the table in front of us, along with antihistamines and decongestants, antibiotics and glasses of orange juice.  Advent has begun and so has the cold and flu season.  I suppose you cannot expect to have 60 family members over to visit, a third of which are under age six, and not expect to get a bug or two. 

Thanksgiving weekend my mother came down from Oscoda, my sister and her family up from Georgia, and my brother and his family up from Onsted.  The twenty three of us had not gotten all together for a Thanksgiving gathering in more than thirteen years.  We connected four long tables so we could all sit together, passing the food family style.  My mother and I sat in the kitchen until 1:30 in the morning the night before as we peeled apples for the Dutch Crumb Top Apple Pies and chopped the walnuts, apples, celery, and cranberries for the Cranberry Jell-O Salad.  We laughed so hard at times we almost piddled.  I remember doing the same with my great grandmother years ago when I was just a young girl. There’s something about women in the kitchen together that, after so many hours, leads to deliriousness. 

Once everyone arrived we took them next door to Farmer Bob’s for a tour of the cows and calves.  The kids stuck their hands out for a long tongue lick and giggled as calves jumped like deer and moo-ed  quite different than they had ever learned.  After dinner, all the children gathered to make turkeys out of Oreo cookies, peanut butter cups, malt balls, candy corn, and frosting.  Adorable little gobblers… well, until you bit their head off.  Tasty little gobblers, either way. 

Just seven days later 47 additional family members descended upon our farm.  My husband’s parents, siblings, and their families had not gathered for Christmas in over 13 years as well (the year we left north and went into full time ministry).  We do our Christmas gatherings a little early due to the fact I get so busy once Christmas nears, so we invited them all for a Christmas dinner and worship the next morning.  The leftover turkey was just about gone from the Saturday before so three hams were glazed and baking.  We set aside the mashed potatoes and gravy and opted for Finley’s American Grill style sweet potatoes soaked in butter with brown sugar and honey.  What a hoot it was to see several of us picking up those hot potatoes, unwrapping them slightly, just enough to wedge two slabs of butter down their mid-section, drizzle on the honey, and drop a teaspoon of brown sugar on top for good measure.  Can you spell decadent? 

After dinner the kids gathered to frost their own sugar cookies.  Several licked their plastic knife each time they dipped it into another color of frosting.  Hmmm… maybe that’s where the germs got passed?  Or could have been the confusion of whose cup was whose during desert… or maybe the multitude of hugs and kisses that got handed out at every corner.  Doesn’t really matter.  It was all worth it.  Family, food, faith, and phlegm: the typical holiday combination.  Please pass the pie… and a tissue.  Aaaa-choo!