Turkey Day

Krystle always made the apple pie for Thanksgiving. Of course this year we either had to make it ourselves or do without. We took the team approach. Nicholas made the filling under Mrs. Curley's step by step direction. Someone else (I really don't know who) made the crust. Yours truly rolled the crust and postioned it on pie plate and then over the filling. It was tremendous effort.

Thanksgiving day we started off with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. (Fr. John talked about Thanksgiving being a wonderful tradition, but pointed out some interesting facts: 1. The Indian women ate the feast with everyone else, but the Pilgrim women were not allowed to eat with the men and the guests; and 2. The Pilgrims originally left England for Holland due to persecution. Why were they persecuted? Because they accused the Anglicans of being too popish in their liturgy and practices.)

At 11:30 we played our annual Turkey Bowl. It is the only timed game of the year (1 hour with a 10 minute half-time/Angelus break included). The teams have been the same some years. The older boys, Nicholas (12) and Connor (11) take on Matthew (9) and myself. Matthew and I had been winning the Turkey bowl for several years in a row-until last year. Last year we fought to a tie-even with 2 overtime periods. This year I thought we would regain dominence because Matthew can now pretty consistently catch the ball, which adds a new dimension to our offense. (We usually run the ball about 80% of the time-while Nick and Connor throw the ball about 90% of the time). We had a secret play (a flea-flicker variation) too. However, Nick and Connor had been practicing, and Connor especially has put on some real speed. They had a couple tricks up their sleeve too. They had added a couple running plays and a fake running play-pass. Nick has the accurate arm. In the first half Connor out ran me for touchdowns twice. At halftime Matthew and I were down by 1 touchdown. Our secret play had been a bust both times we tried it. I had let down on defense twice and Matthew had dropped 2 TD passes. While we were only down by a single TD, it still looked ominous....

With thirteen minutes left in the game we had the ball, but were down by 3 touchdowns. I told Matthew, "It looks like we may not win this year, so let's start having some fun.". We scored and then switched defensive assignments. I intercepted the ball and returned it for a TD, and suddenly we are right back in the game. We traded a few scores, and then finally stopped them and scored ourselves to tie the game on the last play.

For overtime, we decided each team would get two plays from the "20-yard line" (about 15 feet from the TD). If both scored or both missed we would continue. If one scored and the other didn't, then the scoring team wins. On the first try both teams came up short. But on the second round, Matthew tossed the ball to get us on the goal line, and I ran it off tackle the next play for the final score.

My sister Rita came for the weekend (from VA) and together we had a wonderful Turkey dinner. We (actually the boys) cleaned up dinner. Then we had a talent show (poems, songs, etc.). We followed this by gathering together with each of us publically thanked God for the gifts of the past year. Finally we had desert (the apple pie was delicious); then rosary and bed

A wonderful day.

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune...Oremus pro invicem!