Wednesday Before Thanksgiving Is For Baking

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is a day that our home is filled with the aroma of baking. Due to my husband’s recent back surgery it will just be my husband and I to enjoy this bountiful Thanksgiving at home and yet I will still cook the traditional feast that means so much and has always meant so much to our family. My daughter in California asked me why would I cook all that food for just Dad and me?The answer: because it fills us with joy and yes some nostalgia. The smells, the sound of the Christmas parade on television, the launch of the Christmas holidays, all of it fills us with gratitude. I am so grateful for the traditions that my Mother and Father and their Mother and Father’s and all of our ancestors passed on to us so that we can now preserve and share the traditions that make us one big American Family.

What Holiday Traditions Makes You Happy? 

And do you know what makes me the happiest? To see my family and their families carry on the same joyful family traditions. Last year we went to Virginia to have Thanksgiving in Fredericksburg. I want to share our manger scenes with you that I’m so thankful for. The children and I participated in the Hulls Memorial Baptist Church manger scene and drove in the Christmas Parade in downtown Fredericksburg. It’s memories like that that will live on forever. The town of Fredericksburg greeted us with cheers all along packed city streets. And I’ll share a traditions I started and I have embellished upon. Mother used to always serve that green Jell-o mold with shredded carrots and also a fruit salad we loved but it didn’t keep very well so replaced that tradition with this Strawberry Jello Salad for her fruit salad.

Kids Love It

All kids love it. If you have new traditions I would love to hear about them. We have one I’ve shared with you called Texas Caviar that my Daughter-In-Law eats with a spoon like Gazpacho! I’ll share that before New Years eve because my Mother has completely made me superstitious. The saying goes, you must eat black-eyed peas for the new year for good luck!

Hull’s Memorial Baptist Float Fredericksburg VA Christmas Parade The Manger Float

Ingredients Strawberry Jell-O Fruit Salad

I large package of Strawberry Jell-O

2 Cups boiling water

1 small package sliced or crushed strawberries

1 can crushed pineapple

2 ripen mashed bananas

Directions

Stir two cups bowling water into Jell-O add pineapple with juice stir in ripened bananas and frozen strawberries stirring until thawed. Put into the refrigerator until almost set. Remove from the refrigerator and either layer the Jell-O mix in a pretty glass bowl or swirl the sour cream and put back in the refrigerator and allow to set. The mixture will remain rather soft but delicious and creamy.

Hull’s Memorial Baptist Fredericksburg VA Christmas Parade The Manger Float
Hull’s Memorial Baptist Children’s Choir in Fredericksburg VA before the Christmas 
Making Apple Pies
My Boy!
After A Wonderful Day