Preparing for an Orthodox Thanksgiving

image found here

Today our church community is getting ready for our annual Orthodox Thanksgiving dinner that will be held at our home tomorrow. In just a few hours I'll be stuffing the turkey and candying the sweet potatoes.

A couple of years ago some of us from church decided to start celebrating Thanksgiving a few weeks earlier since we can never eat anything on Thanksgiving since it is always during the Nativity fast (if you're on the New Calendar). This year I signed Ace and I up to volunteer at a local soup kitchen on Thanksgiving. I figured since we can't eat anyway and we already had our fellowship and gave thanks, it is important to be reminded that day of our responsibility to those less fortunate. Ace has already begun collecting toys and things in case there are any children there. I am really looking forward to experiencing this with him.

We divide the duties amongst eachother; I make the turkey, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pies and each family brings an entree and side of their choice and drinks. It works out perfectly because it's not a lot of work for any one person and we end up being surrounded by a great variety of foods and wonderful company. We started off with just 3 families and this year it has grown to over 8! It's such a blessing and I look forward to it every year.

We also have quite a few Angelo, Michael, and Gabriel's so we'll be celebrating their nameday tomorrow, on the feast of the Synaxis of Archangels, as well.

I'll post pics of our celebration on Monday!