Another year of Honey Hill memories

Friends gathering at a family cabin (Honey Hill) for a day of Christmas tree cutting ... and lots of laughing, eating, singing, and praying together. It's a great way to begin the Christmas season.
(Rather random order of photos -- and I managed to accidentally delete some, too. Wrestling with blogger... but we'll see what we can do.)

Warm fires :-) in the fireplace and the old cookstove in the kitchen.

Annual guys' football game.

Our gracious host.

Gotta capture these memories in photos.

Teamwork.

Timmmmmmmmmmberrrrrrrr!

Gathering for our traditional time of worship together. John blesses us with some great playing and singing while we all join in. It's so good to pray together again, too. Over the years, we've brought the Lord some weighty matters out there in the woods...and the care of our friends as we join together in prayer reminds us of HIS great love for us.

My Candyland friend :-)

Mark, Ben, and Connor load up our tree (Tim was leading Bible studies at the Corcoran Prison and couldn't join us this year).

Thank you, Rod and Kim, for another great day at Honey Hill. We pray for God's blessing on your family as they've shared this "retreat" over several generations.

Creature comforts

Cuddles - a good ol' dog... pretty old now, but she's been a good friend.
(Yes, she's overweight and practically deaf, and she kind of wheezes when she breathes - but give me a few more years, and that'll pretty well describe me, too.)

Molly, who will do practically anything for a Cheerio.

GLAMOUR SHOTS, thanks to Connor. Oh brother!
(Kaylee's hairpiece from when she was Clara in the Nutcracker. Lovely.)

"Say 'please,' Molly."

Molly, well-loved for her snuggly / nuzzly tendencies.
Molly, ever faithful: "No matter what, I'LL love you."

More prep... then.... the feast

The view from outside.
And inside (below).

Privileges of clean-up: lick the whipped cream spoon

A break in preparations - "magic" tricks, thanks to Fernando, who stopped by early.

David and Vic at work

Some of the preparations -- injecting the turkey with broth. Connor and Jesus gave it a try, too.

Lunch time in the midst of preparations. Arwen (on the left -- medical student staying with us for a month) put sandwiches together.

Weeping over the onions.

Wow. Two huge days of preparations and feasting!
We were so glad for the opportunity to host the boys. Maybe we'll have to do it again -- after we rest up!

~Lori

Prep for Neighbor boys' feast - Day One

A beautiful bouquet - ready to go inside two turkeys. :-)

Connor decided several weeks ago that the boys in the neighborhood needed to join us for a sit-down dinner. The idea grew to a Thanksgiving Feast for about 15 to 20 guys who spend their afternoons hanging out around our house.

Tim enlisted the help of a friend of ours, David Vidal. David grew up in this neighborhood -- he was just 5 years old when we moved here 21 years ago. Since then, he's graduated from culinary school and is hoping to get a catering business off the ground. (His website - www.davidjoecatering05.com)

3 guys in a kitchen

4 guys in a kitchen

5 guys in a kitchen (with 3 of the 15 or 18 or 20 or ? boys who will join us tomorrow)

Dishes anyone?

Cuddles praying for manna from heaven

So, David, you just DUMP the salt in?
(Soaking turkeys in brine)

Tim tries his hand at fancy roll-shapingJesus, Angel, and Connor pitch in as evening ROLLS around :-)

Time out for a little improv with Tim

Day one complete.
Pumpkin pies and blueberry pie and 6 dozen rolls and corn bread and roasted corn for the stuffing. Turkeys soaking in brine. David's special potato salad (white and sweet potatoes, cilantro vinagrette, roasted corn and red onions...)nearly complete. Peach cobbler in the works tomorrow (oh happy collection of desserts!). And who knows what else will appear tomorrow?!
Time to sleep and get ready for Day Two.
And then we'll rest up for a day before -- Thanksgiving!