Thanksgiving Dishes
Thanksgiving was a hit! I stayed busy right up until the last second, and if we’re being honest dinner was an hour late, so you know…
Thanksgiving was our first major holiday in the new house. When we bought this house, it had so many great features I loved so much. I was willing to overlook some of the problems I saw because those things were, and still are, fixable. The great features are still great, and my oven is tiny!
That’s basically where I’m going with this. Hosting will be so much easier when, somewhere down the line, I have a double oven AND a warmer in the kitchen. And I mean far, far down the line. But I digress.
I posted something on Instagram a couple of weeks back about loving paper plates so much. And I do. Because we have so many people in the house and we stay so busy with activities it’s hard to keep everything done, even when they’re delegated to multiple kids as weekly chores.
Believe me. I am not the mom trying to do it all on my own while my kids have the childhood of their dreams. They’ll be adults before I know it and I want them to be 100% prepared for real life.
So yeah. Paper plates. Love them. So much. Then I was busted by a friend last week buying holiday dishes at Hobby Lobby. “I thought you live for paper plates?” she asked. Haha. “Yeah, but not for holiday dinners,” I replied. “Especially for holiday dinners!” Well, that got my wheels turning. I talked to several friends and even the ones who use real plates for their day-to-day said they go the disposable route when talking about holiday meals.
So why am I so weird about this?
Why then, when we will have more food than any other time and more people than any other time, do I choose to bust out the nice dishes? I thought about this for days. Literally.
Thanksgiving week I worked around the house. I did some extra shopping. My husband and I even hung the Christmas lights on a warm day. I baked the pies and prepared the sides the day before, and I washed the dishes. I got up on Thanksgiving morning and put the turkey and ham in. (I used a roaster oven and crockpot for these long-cooking things because, you know, tiny oven.) I ironed the tablecloths and by this time I think my family really thought I was kind of nuts. Who needs to iron a tablecloth? Me.
I did have a little bit of a meltdown moment. It was fairly short and not quite as dramatic as years past, so I’m getting better. Jesus gets the credit for that.
Friends and family arrived. We talked, we ate, we laughed. We ate some more and had some coffee. It was the best kind of night.
Later that night, after everyone had left and my own family was cozied up and sleeping, I cleaned the kitchen. I put the rest of the food in Tupperware containers in the fridge. I wiped off countertops and put tablecloths into a laundry basket. Then I started to load the dishes into the dishwasher. Halfway through the stack of 15 plates and even more saucers I realized that I was smiling. What a weird thought to be smiling and not realize it. And it caught me a little off guard.
And I knew. This is how I love. What seems like going out of the way and causing yourself more trouble to others is actually my joy. Setting up a beautiful table and cooking a meal for the people I love is the way I express my joy and gratitude. I want to put out my very best for them. It’s so rewarding for me that I smile even when I’m doing what feels like a hundred dishes. Because with every dish I’m thinking of the great time we had. I think of the conversations, the encouragement, and the ministry that occurred around a table or a fireplace, plate or cup in hand. That fills me with joy my friends.
Do you have anything special or different that you do during the holidays? What’s your love language? And how do you use that to love the people around you? I want to know!