Thanksgiving 2014

We stayed in Fargo for Thanksgiving this year!

We were able to host a few people from church.

Chris was ambitious and smoked a ham and a turkey!

It was a raw temperature of -11 that day!! Not smoking weather!

But Chris read up and did many different things to get the temperature up and was able to keep it up with no problem. He enjoys learning so much more about the smoker each time he uses it.

So there was frost on the transmitter and it was around 225 degrees in the smoker. Too funny!

Chris focused on the meat, while I worked on the sides! 

All the food turned out great!

I thought it was fun too because we had a side dish from Chris' mom, one from my mom and then one from a family that I went to their house pretty much every thanksgiving growing up. Nice to bring a little bit from each of our families to the table, since we couldn't have been with either!

But our church family guests were so kind to bring some things to the table as well!

Our guests:

Starting with Matt, Sue, Ellen, and then Betty!

It was such a delight to have them over and get to know them a little more!

Matt enjoyed playing with the kids! 

Ryken was sad that Matt had to leave!

I hope to make a thankful tree each year with the kids and I hope to recored the leaves each year, because it is fun to remember what they think of and come up with. 

So these are what Ryken was thankful for in 2014(no particular order):

Grandma and Grandpa

Orange juice

Matthew 

His Bed

Trees

Nana

Food

Toys

Daddy

Aunt Christy

Eating together at the table

Spanker (discipline)

Papa

Mommy

God

Geese

Eggs

Potty

Sunshine

Sorraya

Ellen

Happy Thanksgiving from the Brucks!

"Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving." - Jeremiah 30:19

Whatever is the matter of our joy should be the matter of our praise. What makes us cheerful should make us thankful. Serve the Lord with gladness.  - Matthew Henry