Giving Thanks

This is the view from our house these days. In fact, we see these marvellous fall colours in every direction. Every time we go outside we come back in for the camera to take more pictures!
It was a wonderful weekend with perfect weather for all our family events: canoeing the St. Croix River on Saturday (Maeve and Gramma had our fun at home in Tracy), Thanksgiving services in the various churches, and gatherings for turkey dinners on Sunday and Monday. We are truly thankful for God's abundant goodness, and the all the ways He makes His presence known to each of us. He is an AWESOME God!

The Phillips family came for Sunday evening dinner. We were happy to have Ruth's son and his wife, Roy and Nickie join us. After dinner we had a service of prayer and thanksgiving, and Nickie was at the piano to lead our singing. Her musical talents were a special treat for us!

Here is the "Kids' table". When I commented on how all the kids had grown, one of my sons-in-law said "And look how old the adults are getting." Saucy, isn't he?

Here is the Charters family on Monday at Dad's camp. Fourteen of us travelled in our trucks over the bumpy woods roads and through lots of deep water holes to get to the little camp in the meadow. Our reward was a delicious turkey dinner cooked by Mum and Dad on the wood cookstove, with no electricity and an outside pump for water. We have been enjoying this trek for about twenty-five years now. Jennifer and Jonathan were about five and three when we first began, and some of the cousins have been coming since they were a few months old! This was Maeve's third trip to the camp, but maybe it's the first one she will have any memory of. She had fun with Aunt Amy, who happens to be her favorite person on the planet. We found out that her favorite part of the turkey dinner is "sauce" - cranberry sauce, that is. We finally had to hide it to keep from giving her more!

We always miss the ones who live too far away to be with us for these special family times, as well as those who have work and other commitments. That makes us appreciate all the more the times that we do have together!