THANKSGIVING TEA FOR "FRIENDS SHARING TEA"

Give thanks.....with a grateful heart!

Welcome to Friends Sharing Tea - a weekly blog party and the last one for the season with a "fallish theme".   It has been fun enjoying all our pretty fall decorations but now we are ready to see Christmas decor so this is one last celebration of our lovely fall.

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

I pulled out a few of my Johnson Brothers vintage "Devonshire" dishes for this post. I began collecting this pattern in Texas about 20 years ago and am still hoping to find a teapot sometime that isn't $400.00 like on ebay!  

We won't even address the pumpkin orange muffins I made.  Following the recipe - I finally decided I will retry them later at a higher temperature - such as 400 degrees.  The recipe called for 350 degrees which wasn't hot enough for muffins - I think!  

The vase below is a pattern I sold years ago from the Philippines called "Dellarobia".  I am a little sorry I never kept one of the tea sets: teapot, cream and sugar and cups and saucers.  They were lovely- but when you have a store - you can't keep EVERYTHING!

I have poured you a lovely cup of hot spiced pumpkin tea!

I want to wish you a lovely Thanksgiving Holiday Week and say that I am thankful for so many things.  I am especially thankful for the freedom to worship as a Christian.   I don't want to take for granted my freedom to worship freely.

I am linking to other blogging friends: Tuesday Cuppa Tea, A Delightsome Life and Tea Time Tuesday

If you are a blogger - please link something about TEA BELOW and please include a link back to my blog on your post!  Thanks for participating in this party: