A Very Phillips/Riddle Thanksgiving

The kids table
(James, Nolan, Levi, and  cousin Josh)

This was a very special thanksgiving for me, and I was unaware how much it was going to mean to me until it had past.  For the past few months I have been working on the house in which I grew up.  My parents brought me home from the hospital in this house.  The trees I climbed as a kid are still here (Way to big for me to climb, but they are still here).  There is a piece of concrete at the entrance of the house with the hand prints of my sister and I in it with the year 1981 written with a twig (I was 8 years old).  This house has all of my childhood memories locked in it, and it is especially meaningful that the work on the house was complete enough to have thanksgiving dinner here.

A very juicy grilled turkey

I can't figure out all the words to express what the dinner meant to me.  It was the first time my parents and my in-laws sat for a meal together since the reception at my wedding.  It was the first time since I moved back to North Myrtle Beach that my Father has visited the house for a social reason rather than working on the stucco, crawling under the house to fix the plumbing, or trying to figure out some electrical issues.  It was also the first thanksgiving where I was the one who welcomed everyone to the table, thanked everyone for coming, and prayed for the food.

And then the food...

Everything was awesome.  Mom's sweet potatoes, Heather's Peanut-butter pie, and there is something nostalgic (and very tasty) about my Fathers dressing. But...my father-in-law cooked a turkey on my grill for 5 hours, and it was unbelievable.  My one mess up was that I forgot to put the cranberry sauce on the table, but now I have two cans of cranberry sauce to eat with the leftovers! Yummy!