...this our hymn of grateful praise.

"Give thanks to the Lord for He is good,
His love endures forever."
Psalm 136

One of the things I am thankful for the most is family. And even though the Suko's may not actually be family by blood we are still family in Christ. It was such a blessing to spend Thanksgiving at the Suko's this year, as we have done for over 7 years now. When they learned that first Thanksgiving that we had no family to spend Thanksgiving with here they warmly welcomed us into their home. We have many stories from the past years of Thanksgiving spent with them. The most famous I would have to say is when my brother found a bottle of mace on one of the end tables. He picked it up, curious as to what it was, and then it went off. I was the first to feel the effects since I was sitting right there. All I remember is I felt a horrible burning in the back of my throat and then a feeling like my throat had been constricted. I started coughing and then slowly it moved through the room and started to effect everyone else. Those of us effected went outside to get some fresh air. It did soon pass and we were back inside enjoying the evening. Every Thanksgiving since then we always reminisce about that time.

This year was bitter sweet because of the loss of Gabe in Iraq this last August. But God has been so good to the Suko family and Hannah and given them peace and comfort. And what a joy it was to watch Gabe's little son Gabriel playing and laughing away. We are so thankful that the Lord gave Hannah this precious baby boy to carry on Gabe's name and to give her comfort.

Hannah cooked the turkey this year since her parents were in Ukraine on a mission trip. (They just arrived home yesterday.) My mom made the delicious rolls she makes every year and two pumpkin pies. I also made two pumpkin pies and yams. We also had green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy and pickled beats. Needless to say we all were stuffed by the end of the night. The Suko boys held a little competition between them. They weighed themselves before they ate, wrote down those numbers and then at midnight they were going to weigh themselves again to see who had gained the most weight. Throughout the evening they discussed which foods were the most dense and would cause someone to gain lots of weight. The rest of us felt sick just from thinking of stuffing ourselves that much! I still have not heard who won. When we left that night Caleb was in the lead with 6 pounds gained!! Whew! :)

Here is video and some pictures I made of the evening. Enjoy! :)


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"For the Beauty of the Earth"

For the beauty of the earth,
for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies:

Lord of all to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.