Thanksgiving

Local church congregations collaborated Wednesday and Thursday to serve hot Thanksgiving meals to more than 2,000 people in Clark County. More than 600 were fed Wednesday at a dinner sponsored by Grace Bible Church and more than 1,200 meals were delivered Thursday by volunteers from Winchester First United Methodist Church.

James Mann/jmann@winchestersun.com Emily Turner, a student at Clark County Christian School, gives Rob Begley a Thanksgiving card she created Tuesday afternoon during their visit to Rapha Ministries to distribute food to some of the patients. Cooper Hamilton, left, waits to give Begley a box of Thanksgiving food.

With the holidays upon us, millions of Americans are hitting the road to visit with family and friends. The Kentucky Office of Highway Safety (KOHS) wants every celebration to be a joyous occasion, so travelers are reminded that state and local law enforcement will be out in force through the Thanksgiving weekend, sending the strong message to “Click It or Ticket.”    While seat-belt use is at a record high of 85 percent nationwide, Kentucky lags behind with an 82-percent usage rate.  There were 760 total highway fatalities in Kentucky in 2010, with 598 killed in motor vehicles.

When James and Debbie Rison and their five children and extended family gather for Thanksgiving, there will be plenty of food, fun and fellowship, but there will also be one big empty spot in the celebration. For the second time in the past three years, their son, Sgt. Christopher Anderson, won't be with the family in Winchester Thursday. Instead, he will spend the holidays with his fellow U.S. Marines at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan. Anderson was in Afghanistan the first time from January 2009 to January 2010, and this 6-month deployment will keep him there until February 2012.

Dear Editor: Thanksgiving brings to mind the sturdy Pilgrims of Plymouth who, after struggling through a difficult winter of extreme hardship, joined in a celebratory feast of thanksgiving at the end of the first harvest in the new world. The cornucopia, more appropriate for us than for them, has become an appropriate symbol for this annual event that has, since 1621, been a part of our American culture. As it has in years past, the cornucopia, sometimes called the horn of plenty, will decorate homes and churches throughout this land again this year as we prepare to celebrate another Thanksgiving.

At this time each year, as a matter of custom and choice, most Americans pause from their routines. The day centers on family camaraderie, sumptuous food intake and reflections of past encounters that were joyful or sorrowful. In many ways, life can be seen as a giant conveyor belt that never stops running. Once born, we take our place on this sliding account of life and move through the various steps that identify each of us. The pause that normally comes in the form of Thanksgiving can be that annual reflection, comparing our lives with those around us. While all of us are on the conveyor belt, our experiences are not the same.

Dear Editor: Parents, please tell your children what may not even be taught at school anymore. The true story of the first Thanksgiving begins in 1608, when a group of Christians called Separatists, persecuted for forming a church apart from the Church of England, left their homeland to settle in Leyden, Holland. There, they found religious freedom but also poverty, grueling work and a secular culture that threatened to undo the values they had carefully instilled in their children.

I will be going to my daughter Kim's for Thanksgiving. She loves to cook the Thanksgiving meal, and it always looks like something out of Southern Living as we sit down to eat. Her sister and I will bring two dishes to help out. I am to take dumplings and dressing. She is going to cook a turducken. In case you are wondering what a turducken is, it is a deboned turkey with a deboned duck inside the turkey and a deboned chicken inside the duck. As you slice through the turducken, you get all three in one slice.

A Thanksgiving Card class will be held from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Unique Creations, 1011 W. Lexington Ave. All supplies will be provided. From 1 to 3 p.m. a get-together will be offered for those who are doing crochet and knitting projects. Assistance will be given to those who are having problems with their projects. Participants must be 12 years of age or older, and no children under 12 will be allowed in the classroom.

Most federal, state, county and city government offices will be closed Thursday and Friday in observance of Thanksgiving. The list is as follows: Boyle County Courthouse offices will be closed Thursday and Friday except for the sheriff's office, which will be open 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. to collect taxes. The recycling center will close Thursday and Friday and reopen Saturday. The animal shelter and all convenience centers will close Thursday and reopen Friday and Saturday. The road department will close Thursday and Friday.

The Thanksgiving holiday is over and everyone is preparing for Christmas. As we prepare for Christmas, let us remember that Jesus is the reason for the season. So often people forget what Christmas is really about. We spent Thanksgiving Day at sister Emma and Jacob's house. Emma prepared two turkeys. They had the table set for 19 people. Daughter Elizabeth's friend Timothy and Susan's friend Mose joined us for the day. It is hard to believe that Emma's and my family comes to 19 already when we are together.

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday and there are several reasons for this. One is I like the idea that no gifts are expected and that takes care of the commercial dichotomy that Christmas presents for me. The second reason is that, for many years, we always drove to Fredricktown, Mo., to be with our great aunt Auntie. She lived alone in an old, old log house in the Ozark Mountains. Everything about the magic of Thanksgiving has always brought up every aroma, every board that squeaked on the floor, right down to the blaze in her back yard when we burned all her trash accumulated since our last visit to Auntie's house.

It takes about six hours to cook a 30-pound turkey. I know that because I may or may not have purchased a turkey roughly that size for my family's Thanksgiving dinner this year. When Brandon told me we needed a big turkey to feed everyone, I took him seriously. He took one look at that thing in the fridge and said, “I didn't even know they made turkeys that size.” Indeed, it seems turkeys can grow to be myriad sizes, even 30 pounds. I'm glad no one was at home to see me trying to lug it to the kitchen -  I¿don't know which was bigger, the turkey or my belly.

Once again the year has just about come full circle, and certain things tend to take place at my house about this time of year. It happens each year around Thanksgiving. My thoughts turn toward Christmas time and putting up Christmas decorations.  My fall decorations - pumpkins, etc. - are taken down throughout the house, along with the scarecrows and anything that looks like fall outside the house, to be transformed with lights of Christmas, wreaths, poinsettias, the nativity scene, snowmen, Santa Claus and big red bows on light posts.

Becky Taulbee, second from left, and her granddaughters, from left, Lindsey Hannan, 19, Emily Hannan, 15, and Haley Hannan, 13, serve traditional Thanksgiving food to Ashton Boyken, 17, right. Volunteers from the First United Methodist Church in Winchester helped prepare, serve and deliver about 1,000 meals for lunch Thursday. Approximately 200 church volunteers helped make the Thanksgiving day meal possible. Forty church families each took home a turkey to cook and carve for the meal.

For some, having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner is not an option, either because they cannot afford it or they have no one with whom to celebrate. A group of volunteers from area churches and organizations has been striving to change that. The eighth annual serving of the meal to the community will be 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at Lexington Avenue Baptist Church. The brainchild of two friends, Doris Cessna and MaryAnn Teater, the Community Thanksgiving began with the help of their respective churches, Lexington Avenue Baptist and Calvary Baptist, after the two women felt led to use their Thanksgiving to serve others.

The traditional holiday turkey will be prepared by about 250 million households this year. To make that dinner safer for everyone to enjoy, there are a few precautions to take when preparing your next turkey dinner. Planning ahead will help reduce the risks of foodborne illness at your holiday table. If you purchase a fresh turkey, purchase only one to two days before cooking. Pre-stuffed fresh turkeys are not recommended by the US Department of Agriculture Food Safety Inspection Service.

One of the things Brandon and I were most excited about when we bought our house was being able to invite people over. In fact, I was so excited that I volunteered us to host Thanksgiving dinner this year for both our families. Since we moved into the house, I've done a lot more cooking, and I¿haven't managed to poison either of us yet. Yet. Seriously though, I thought, and still think I am up to the challenge. I plan to cook the whole dinner with a few minor exceptions.

FRANKFORT - Thanksgiving is always a special holiday for many of us, because it gives us a chance to gather with family and friends to reflect on the great blessings that we enjoy in our country. The blessing we enjoy and celebrate during Thanksgiving is certainly much compared to the pilgrims at Plymouth, Mass., who celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1621. They had very little food to eat and their homes did not provide proper protection from the icy cold temperatures of their new home land.  They were forced to dine outside since their settlement did not have a home or barn large enough for all the people who came to celebrate that first Thanksgiving Day. Even through those hardships the men, women and children of Plymouth gathered together to give thanks for the limited blessings they enjoyed.

Wades Mill Homemakers enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner Nov. 1.¿Hostess was Ann Barker. The lesson, “Bread Baking Basics,” was given by Maryett Gyula. Those attending were Dolores Hess, Clara Kendig, Maryett Gyula, Cathy Gatson, Ann Barker, Bette McKenzie and two new members, Nancy Burchett and Joyce Gillman. The next meeting will be the Christmas celebration Dec. 6 at 10 a.m. at the Hess house. Members will bring a wrapped Christmas ornament to exchange. Nancy Strosnider will give the lesson, “Take the Age Out of Your Dress.”