turkey

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My First Turkey Dinner Was Amazing

I had my first turkey dinner the other day.

My first turkey dinner was amazing

I mean, there has to be a first for everything, doesn’t there? 

There was the first time you tied your shoe laces. Maybe you even remember that time. 

I still have a faint memory of me sitting on the steps by the back door of our house when I shouted, “I did it!” And my mom came running to look.  

That had to be about sixty years ago that I tied my shoes laces for the first time. 

I’ve had many firsts since then. We all have.

One really memorable first for me was skating on an outdoor rink at a school yard. 

I was alone; it was probably about 9:30 pm. There were no lights, only the light of the moon reflecting off the ice.

It wasn’t the first time I had skated, but it was the first time I had skated after having surgery to repair an artery in my leg. 

I had injured it playing hockey and was now carrying a six inch, eighteen stitch scar at the top of my leg. I wondered if I would be able to skate again so I headed to a school rink late at night to test it out. 

I remember skating around that rink in the dark, being so thankful that I was alright and that I could skate with no pain or restriction. 

I remember just thanking God over and over and over as I buzzed around the rink taking slaps against the boards.

I guess in the same way that skate was my first, yesterday my turkey dinner was also the first of a kind. 

You see, it was the first time that our daughter cooked turkey dinner for Thanksgiving. 

And she did really well – delicious, I might add!

There had to be a first time, and the situation presented itself this year. This was it. 

Over dinner we talked about the first time Lily had made a turkey dinner. She and I had been married just a couple of months. She thought she would do it all from scratch … except for raising and feeding the turkey herself. 

She even made pumpkin pie from scratch. After making the pie and commenting on how hard it was to cut up the pumpkin, and how time consuming it was to cook and prepare it, a friend informed Lily, “You know you can buy cooked pumpkin in a can for the pie filling.” 

Lily responded, “Wait. What?!”

She’s never made it from scratch since. 

Well, Karlie had her mom’s experience to guide her in making her pumpkin pie and first turkey dinner. 

A “Griswold Christmas Vacation” it was not. No exploding turkey. 

Everyone raved at how good everything was … even the stuffing – an old secret family recipe that some say Karlie made better than her mom. 

I guess this means that we will be eating turkey dinners for years to come.

Here’s the thing: Often our prayer time ends rather abruptly. We get to the end of what we want to say to God and we wrap it up quickly with an “amen”. Let me challenge you to try something for the first time: Linger after you’ve finished your list to God. Ask Him a question and just wait. Listen for what He might bring to your mind. Your first time might turn into many more times to come.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What “first” have you experienced in the last year? Leave your comments and questions below.

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When The Conversation Is Out Of Your Control

Conversations usually flow from one topic to another at a gathering, but when the party is heavy on the testosterone you lose all control of the dialogue.

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That would be how I would describe our Easter dinner this year.

In my last post (read it here), I wrote about our plans for Easter dinner and said that in this post I would write about how it turned out.

Lily was sort of forced to buy a thirty pound turkey because that was the only size she could find at the grocery store. To save me from having to eat turkey for the next six months, she came up with a plan to invite some people who knew how to finish off a ton of food.

We invited two players from the Kingston Frontenacs hockey team, and two of our son Mike’s friends.

That gave us five guys 25 and under, myself, Lily and our daughter, Karlie. When it came to the food, Lily and Karlie didn’t stand a chance. And when it came to the conversation, the guys monopolized that too.

Easter is a time when our focus is on the resurrection of Christ, the price He paid for our sins and the amazing gift of a relationship with God that Christ offers us.

However, some of our company had just come back from an afternoon of riding quads on muddy trails, so naturally the boys needed to spend some time rehashing all the ups and downs of the episode.

Some of our conversation around the dinner table focussed on the more spectacular antics on the quads, getting stuck, who almost died on the outing and who made the biggest fool of themselves.

I’m not much into that sport; in fact, I’ve never ridden a quad before. I have, however, ridden my mountain bike on some pretty muddy trails, so I was all ears as we listened to the exchange among the guys. Voices and laughter seemed to get louder as the stories turned to the personal shortcomings of one and all.

At Easter dinner there is nothing wrong with diverting from the main theme of the day, but hey, we also had some hockey players with us who are right in the middle of the OHL playoffs.

Everyone wanted to know how they were feeling about the series and how they thought it would turn out. We analyzed the team and talked about old hockey stories that related.

Of course, on any hockey team there are some characters that stand out. And just like with the boys who went quading, there were moments in the conversation that focussed on some of the crazy antics that happen within a hockey club.

By the time dinner was over, there was a table full of stuffed people who barely had room for dessert.

Though we didn’t really talk about the Easter message – other than a quick explanation and saying grace – most of the guys felt like they’d been verbally crucified by the others over the course of the meal … not typical for an Easter dinner, but typical when you gather five young men around the same table and bring food into the mix.

Here’s the thing: When guys get talking the stories can become bigger and better. The biggest story in the history of the world, however, is the love God has shown us in sending His only Son to die on a cross so that you and I can have a relationship with Him. There is no bigger story!

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you relate to the biggest story in history? Leave your comment below.

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The Turkey Was Meant To Be

Some things are meant to be. You don’t always know why at the time, but it makes sense later.

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For Easter dinner this year Lily decided to cook a turkey. She went out and bought a thirty pounder.

Some farmers try to plump up their turkeys before they get to market. I think Lily’s trying to plump up the family, but I’m not sure for what!

Thirty pounds of turkey split four ways … well, you do the math. I’d have to play a lot of hockey AND be on my rowing machine for a couple of weeks to get rid of all that extra weight that would be showing up on my scale each morning.

To be fair to Lily, she didn’t look for a thirty pound turkey; it’s all she could find in the store. She was forced into it.

Nevertheless, we needed to do something to cut down on that total turkey intake we were looking at on Easter Sunday.

We knew Karlie was coming home and would participate in the feast but probably to a minimal degree. Mike would also be home for Easter dinner, and that would mean lots of potatoes and gravy, too.

That left Lily and I to clean up the rest and I wasn’t looking forward to eating leftovers for the next month. I like turkey leftovers, but there is a limit to how long I really want to be eating them.

Lil also has this volunteer position as a chef for a major frozen food company that helps with leftovers. I believe it’s called “Lil’s kitchen creations.”

She’s been doing this for a year now. She cooks a large meal, more than we can eat, and then makes up single serving containers of the meal which she freezes and delivers to her mother, and sometimes Karlie and Mike.

Well, with a thirty pound turkey, that’s a lot of frozen meals, even if they are spread around to others.

Lil needed a plan for this meal and so she started thinking of who else she could invite. She did the smartest thing: she invited some young guys over.

There were a couple of Kingston Frontenac hockey players on the list. Young guys in their late teens are much like chocolate Easter bunnies: they are hollow inside, perfect for hiding a lot of turkey and stuffing.

… I remember the days when I could hide a lot of food. But those days are long gone. I need to get on my stationary bike for twenty minutes after a turkey dinner or else I’m looking at buying a new belt!

Lil figured that if she also invited Mike’s roommate and another of his friends, they would be able to do damage to the turkey. Guys in their mid twenties have had lots of practice putting away large volumes of food; they know where to put that stuff.

So we were all set. The distribution of thirty pounds of turkey was accounted for. … I’ll let you know in my next post how it all turned out (read it here).

Here’s the thing: You have to make the best of what you have. And when you have plenty, you need to spread it around. At Easter we have the greatest message there is: Jesus died for our sins so that we can be forgiven, and because He rose from the grave, we can have a relationship with God and heaven waiting for us. That’s a large meal that needs to be shared with others.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: Who can you share the message of Easter with? Leave your comment below.

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The Real Focus Of Thanksgiving

Everyone knows that Thanksgiving is all about turkey. Well, it’s all about family and being thankful, but we do all that while eating turkey.

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Maybe it’s because we are thankful that, at some point around the table, the topic of stuffing comes up. Every family seems to have a few people who are really thankful for stuffing – not stuffing in general mind you, but their particular stuffing.

Theirs is the best, better than the in-laws, better than store bought (can you buy store bought stuffing?) … better than the stuffing you had last year at your best friend’s home.

Stuffing is always passed down from generation to generation. It’s never your stuff that you make, but it’s mom’s stuffing, or grandma’s, or granny’s, or baba’s stuffing. Notice it’s never Grandpa’s stuffing?

The biggest ingredient that I can figure in stuffing is bread, but after the bread it gets fairly specialized from there. Often there are some ingredients in the recipe which make it distinctive and more delicious than any other stuffing you’ve ever tasted.

I have to jump in here and make a confession: I don’t like stuffing. There have been a few times in my life that I’ve tried it, mostly because someone has begged me to try it on account of it being so amazing. To me it’s all much the same.

But in our house you don’t really make that view public, like I’m doing here. You see, anyone can cook a turkey and it will generally taste the same. But oh, the stuffing is unique, and it must be of an exact consistency with a taste that leaves the patron wondering, “What does she put in that stuffing? I’ve just got to know.”

But you also know that there will be ingredients in that stuffing that will not be revealed because they are secret. You would have to be locked in the basement, chained to the pool table for at least 35 years if it was ever discovered you had found out the secret to the best stuffing in the world.

Personally, I think stuffing makers think way too much about their stuffing. Let’s all remember it is just flavoured bread, jammed up inside a turkey for about six hours, while it gets all steamy, sweaty in there.

We rave over stuffing but nobody is asking to smell my gym socks after sitting in my gym bag for a day and there’s a few similarities there.

But that’s okay, keep your secret ingredients, keep your little smirk at the table when people try to probe you for information. I’m not going ask; I don’t really care. I’m not even going to try the stuffing this year.

I’d share some secrets in this piece but I don’t want to potentially be passed over for what I’m really looking forward to, that being the turkey. Because after all, when I sit down to the table on Thanksgiving, it’s the turkey, not the stuffing, that I’m thankful for.

Here’s the thing: Spiritually we can get sidetracked so easily from the main thing. We can focus on good things, and put a lot of our effort into really good things, things we have come to appreciate and view as important. But the main thing is that we are growing in our relationship with Christ. Christ is who we should be thankful for and focused on. If we are not focusing our efforts on being more like Him, then we are concentrating on good things that taste good to some people but missing the real focal point of our lives.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What gets you sidetracked from the main thing of being more like Christ? Leave your comment below.