Sunday, November 24, 2013

Thanksgiving Dinner of Turkey with all the Trimmings - Continuation

Five roasted turkeys, a tray of stuffing, two big pots of mashed potatoes, two pots of gravy, 36 cans of corn with butter, eight huge cans of green beans with cranberries, a great big tray of Costa Rican rice, ten cans of cranberry sauce, an enormous bowl of Jello with fruit cocktail, six containers of Cool Whip, and lots of cookies all fed 70 people their Thanksgiving dinner yesterday.  :)   And only just a few leftovers.  :)

A really big storm came through here & it rained heavily all day Friday, all night, and it was also raining & quite dreary on Saturday late morning when I got up.  The sun never came out on Friday at all, which is quite unusual for us here in Tucson.  Many of us, even as far away as Wisconsin, prayed for the rain to stop, at least long enough to feed the homeless, which of course is done outside in parking lots of two City parks. 

Kristine & Ray of "Kadooks" Food Truck offered to bring their canopy so the food would stay dry while serving & the homeless would be covered too while eating.  :)   And thank you both also for bringing all that wonderful Costa Rican rice to share with everyone !!   :)   You two are awesome & your Lights shine bright !!  :)   It was so special to have you join all of us for this special occasion.  :)

Yesterday, Saturday, around 2 P.M. it stopped raining, started clearing up & the sun started peeking out, especially on the west side, where the parks are.  :)   Many Thank You prayers were sent "up" & still are today for this great big Miracle.  :)   The forecast was that it supposed to rain hard all day yesterday & again today on Sunday.  Thank you everyone locally for your prayers, and the Wisconsin ones too.  :)

Most of the homeless people were surprised to get this early turkey dinner & all were quite grateful.  :)   Those extra large plates were so full of food, there was no room for anything else on there.  It just was so good to know that their bellies were full & that they all were sleeping in dry weather last night.  :)  

Thank you Marianne, K.C., Teresa, Patty, and Gopal for roasting & carving a turkey each for this meal !!  :)  I couldn't have pulled this off without your kind help.  :)  And thank you also for bringing them over to my house during the rainy mess outside.  I have some turkey meat left over, which is in the freezer already.  It will make a wonderful turkey "stoup" (soup-stew) after the holidays for the homeless, especially some of your smoked turkey, Gopal !!  :)  

Hilde, thank you for making your great stuffing again this year & your famously smooth & tasteful gravy !!  :)   Mary Ann, thank you for bringing your Mom over & to the park & thank you both for helping out with the mashed potatoes.  :)  

Sue, my faithful corn & green beans helper, thank you for filling up the pots with those & for heating them up at your house to cover for the lack of big stove burners, actually more burners altogether.  :)   We used a lot of great big pots for this meal. 

Dave & Linda, thank you for helping with the groceries for this meal too & for even bringing extra this time.  It will help with the big Christmas meal, which is coming up quickly.  :)  
I so appreciate everything you do for the homeless !!  :)

Marilyn, you get five stars for the big bowl of Jello with fruit cocktail you made for this occasion, my non-cooking friend !!  :)   May your burners always be turned on.   ;)

Lydia, Lupe, & Bertha thank you for baking all those cookies & for putting them into all those gorgeous bags !!  :)  What a beautiful sight that was !!  :)   There will be photos of this after this blog. I bought some more small bags & Marilyn separated the cookies into twice as many baggies, so we had enough for everyone during last nights meal.  :)  

Cristina, thank you dearly for donating all the cranberry sauce, which went quickly this time around.  :)

Marilyn, Hilde & Mary Ann, Gerry & Kim, Teresa & Leticia, Ray & Kristine, my Gratitude goes to all of you for making a wonderful serving line for all the food !!  :)  You were a great team altogether !!  :)   And thank you for loading everything in & out of the cars & so quickly too.   :)

Marilyn, thank you also for taking pictures & movies again for this blog, some of which are following this.  :)  We don't have too many pictures, since it gets dark quite early these days, but we have a few & some wonderful short videos.  :)

Now onward towards the big Christmas event for the homeless, which will be on December 28th this year.  On Christmas Eve I will be going to the two parks with 17 Deep Dish Pizzas, which I ordered today.  :)

Happy Thanksgiving to each & everyone of you !!  :)   My Heart is full of Gratitude to all of you who are always there for me on this adventure of feeding the homeless & hungry  !!  :)   May your Season be blessed with many happy surprises !!  :)

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