The Porter family has celebrated the Thanksgiving Holiday after my bride and myself were married back in 1968 and most families that I know have celebrated the holiday as far back as I can remember. 

The pictures that I took of our Thanksgiving Holidays after the digital age came into its own, were stored on different personal computers hard drives of which I lost a few of them not backed up and those hard drives that survived, eventually ended up on back-up storage devices; floppy disk drive, USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs and of late, external hard drive devices.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING

A brief history of our Thanksgiving Holiday (United States) from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:  Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November.  It has officially been an annual tradition since 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26.  As a federal and popular holiday in the U.S., Thanksgiving is one of the major holidays of the year. Together with Christmas and New Year, Thanksgiving is a part of the broader holiday season. The event that some Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in 1621. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days, and was attended by 53 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans.  The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings"—days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought, though the 1621 events were likely not a religious observation.

EVERY DAY, A DAY OF THANKSGIVING

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior many times throughout each day for his many blessing and will list some Bible scriptures concerning giving thanks!

Bible verses related to Giving Thanks from the King James Version (KJV) by Relevance

 1 Thessalonians 5:18 - In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Colossians 3:17 - And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Psalms 100:1-5 - (A Psalm of praise.) Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. (Read More...)

Psalms 150:6 - Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

Philippians 4:6 - Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

1 Chronicles 29:10-20 - Wherefore David blessed the LORD before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our father, for ever and ever. (Read More...)

2 Corinthians 9:7 - Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

James 1:17 - Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Luke 6:38 - Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

Psalms 136:1 - 127:26 - O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. (Read More...)

Psalms 92:1 - (A Psalm or Song for the sabbath day.) It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:

1 Chronicles 29:13 - Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.

Psalms 107:1 - O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Hebrews 13:15 - By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

Ephesians 5:20 - Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

Psalms 9:1-2 - (To the chief Musician upon Muthlabben, A Psalm of David.) I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works. (Read More...)

THANKSGIVING 2023 - THOSE ATTENDING

Those attending our Thanksgiving dinner were:  Laura, Travis and Trevor Porter, my bride aka Joyce Porter and yours truly William aka Mickey Porter.  The Gonzales family, Lisa, Xander and Lily were not able to attend due to strep throat.

OUR MEAL

Our meal is pretty much standard from year to year and consisted of:  deep fried turkey, cornbread dressing, giblet gravy, collard greens and ham hocks, potato salad, deviled eggs, yams, fried cornbread, garden brown peas with meat, green bean casserole, cranberry chutney, pumpkin pie, dinner rolls and earthquake cake.

ADDITIONAL FOOD PIXS

All of us gathered around the island, held hands and I led us all to our Lord in prayer and thanked Him for another Thanksgiving and for each and every day that He allows and to bless the food to the nourishment of our bodies.  Amen!

After our meal, I delivered plates to the Gonzales family and Wink and Rachel Myers!

SAFETY FIRST

For decades, I have been doing deep fried turkeys for various family gatherings and the past few years with all the reported fires caused by the turkey fryer grease fires, I have moved the turkey fryer burner/turkey pot in the yard as an extra means of safety.  Most of the turkey fryers/pots come with a small coat hanger type apparatus to lower your turkey into the hot oil and that is no doubt the major reason since your hand is too close to the hot oil and you do get some splatter from the hot grease while slowly lowering the turkey into the hot oil and you drop the turkey into the hot oil and the splash over oil ignites!.  I solved that safety issue by making a long metal EMT rod with a hook on the end allowing you to be a couple feet away from the oil as you lower the turkey into the hot oil.

When the vegetable oil gets to 350 F., I will slowing lower the seasoned turkey into the hot oil using the long EMT metal rod with a hook on the end and will normally keep the turkey in the hot oil for 4.5 minutes per pound.  Our turkey this year weighted 22.7 pounds which included the giblets, etc.  I did trim some of the excess fat off the turkey at the end of the spine.

THIS WAS A FIRST EVER

This was the first ever that I had a turkey pull apart above the legs/back when handling it.  When the turkey was removed from the hot oil, I held it over the turkey pot and allowed the excess hot oil to drain back into the pot.  I then took the turkey to the table on our deck and placed it on a round sheet pan.  I forgot to place paper towels on the sheet pan and then got a few and raised the turkey off the sheet pan to place the paper towels on the sheet pan and the turkey came in two.  As stated earlier, this turkey was 22.7 pounds and the weight was no doubt the reason it pulled apart, plus it was cooked done!  A few pixs will show the details:

Can you say "beautimous" out loud?  One beautiful golden brown deep fried turkey for sure and did taste wonderful.

A FEW ADDITIONAL PIXS

Laura Porter enjoying the meal.

My bride aka Joyce Porter with her plate.

This is Bill aka Mickey Porter's plate with another one in the background partially hidden and everything was outstanding!  "It is a poor frog that want croak on his own pond!"

My camera settings were a little off and/or too much sunlight coming through our windows affecting the images taken, my bad!

LEARNED SOMETHING NEW

While boiling eggs for the potato salad, of which the eggs were about a month old which normally will peel without any trouble, maybe one egg or two at the most out of a carton of eighteen (18).  However, those eggs I used must have been laid from a hen from Hades, because the 12 that I peeled, the egg shell would not release and literally pulled chucks of egg white off with the shell.  My bride later tried to peel a couple with the same results.

Before boiling the eggs for the egg salad, I did a YouTube search and found one video of a lady that used a technique and it worked like a charm.  The procedure was simply place your cold eggs into hot boiling water, place the lid on the pot and for hard boiled eggs, boil them for ten (10) minutes!  Drain water from the pot and run regular tap water covering the eggs.  Give the pot a brisk shake back and forth and some of the eggs will start to peel themselves.

I tried the technique above and the eggs peeled without any effort whatsoever!

In the past I tried adding Baking Soda, lemon juice, vinegar, etc. and nothing was foolproof!

It just goes to show you, "It is never too late to learn new things, regardless of your age."

In closing, we always have a fantastic time with family and friends sharing a good meal together and making memories that last a lifetime.

As I say so many times, "Two of the Greatest Ships that ever Sailed, Friendship and Fellowship."  Family and Friends do make Life so worthwhile.

LEAVING ON A SPIRITUAL NOTE

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, please take this moment to accept him by Faith into your Life, whereby Salvation will be attained.   

Ephesians 2:8 - 2:9 8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Open this link about faith in the King James Bible.

IN GOD WE TRUST - GOD BLESS AMERICA - "FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE"   JOHN 3:16 KJV