Once again our glad thankgivings
Rise before our Fathers’s throne,
As we try to count the blessings
Of the year so swiftly flown.

So begins the poem “Let Us Give Thanks” by A. B. Simpson. Here we are again, two days before Thanksgiving, and I have two questions for all of you. 1. What have you been blessed by this year? 2. What pie are you making for Thanksgiving? Leave a response to these questions as a comment on this post and you’ll have a chance to receive a copy of my little booklet Love in a Crust in the mail.

I’m going to be making a Cranberry Pear Pie myself, from a recipe that my sweet older sister Marilyn gave me several autumns ago and I still haven’t tried! Very much looking forward to it.

As for what I’ve been blessed by this year, I hardly know where to begin. I will say that I am constantly amazed at the love God shows to me in the form of my fellow humans and that I’d have to count my family and friends at the very top of my blessings list.

Now, if you haven’t settled on a pie recipe for Thursday yet and are looking for something a little different but decidedly fall-ish, and if you have Ken’s Pie cookbook, may I suggest to you this absolutely delectable Cinnamon Applesauce Pie? It’s simple as anything, with a richer-than-you-would expect filling full of eggs and spices.

I got to make this pie for our friends Ben, Leah, and Jamil, when they visited us at the beginning of October. There’s Ben (he and Leah came all the way from England to visit), Jamil inspecting our wooden fruit bowl…he made the beautiful cutting board the pie is resting on, so he’s always looking for new woodworking ideas…Dante, our 18-year-old friend who is living with us for the school year, and Ricardo, another young friend from our LA church.

Another blessing for the list: having a home to share.

The list continues. For the oak trees, for the vineyards, for the sun and the occasional rain, for time spent in meaningful conversation, for God, who “has put gladness in my heart, more than when the grain and the new wine are increased,” as Psalm 4 says. It is through Him that all of these other blessings have such value.

We got to enjoy these blessings with our friends during their visit: here are a few pictures from a vineyard tour that we took part in (Saarloos and Sons Co. in Los Olivos).

While we love to “count the blessings”,
Grateful for the year that’s gone,
Faith would sweep a wider vision,
Hope would gaze yet further on.

For the signals all around us
Seem with one accord to say,
“Christ is coming soon to bring us
Earth’s last, best Thanksgiving Day!”

Levi, this poem is especially for you. Thank you for sharing your newfound love of poetry with me this year! You can read the whole poem here: http://www.inspirational-poems.net/thanksgiving-poems/343-let-us-give-thanks#ixzz3sQJ19edv