Below is a pix of them kicked back on our couch:

Notice those Obamaphones are not to far from them.  Bill had two of them, one work and one personal Obamaphone.....I call all cell phones Obamaphones!  Maybe Joe Biden will have a massive cell phone give away and will have to change Obamaphone to Bidenphone.

PULLED PORK BBQ

A Porter pulled pork BBQ was prepared for them on October 14, 2021 and prepared home made
baked beans and slaw.  I let Captain D's here in Wadesboro, NC do the hush puppies.....grin
if you must.

Below a few pixs taken:

I took several sequence pixs of preparing the BBQ lunch, however I took very few pixs of us around the table, etc.

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.

EARLY THANKSGIVING 2021

The Porter family has celebrated the Thanksgiving Holiday as far back as I can remember and after my bride and myself were married in 1968, we continued the tradition.  We have not had all three (3) Porter "Kids" together since our Early Thanksgiving on 2013 and it was wonderful to have them present for this meal.

It was my bad not taking pixs of everyone, or the table spread of food, but it was one of those days which I refer to as being "Brain Dead"............grin if you must.  It was after the meal was underway when someone asked about the potato salad and deviled eggs of which I forgot to bring up from the basement refrigerator and also the cranberry sauce which didn't make it to the table and will explain later.

After everyone was called to the kitchen/dining room, a prayer was given by yours truly thanking God our Creator through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior for his many blessings, grace and mercy, and to bless our food for the nourishment of our bodies.

Those attending the noon day meal were: Joyce Porter, Bill Porter, Sr., Bill Porter, Jr., Nichol Porter, Laura Porter, Travis Huneycutt, Lisa Gonzales, Xander and Lily Gonzales, Wink & Rachel Myers and Haywood Newton.

Below some of the pixs taken by yours truly, Bill and Nichol Porter:

Above pixs taken on the 14th, whereas we were preparing deviled eggs.  My bride slept through making the potato salad.......another grin is in order.

Miss Lily "snuck" in the pix and Nichol's Obamaphone caught Lily's eyes closed.

USING NEW BANJO BURNER AND STAND

Recently, my antiquated propane gas burner has been giving trouble and decided to replace it with a much larger burner sold by Agri Supply and it worked great after getting the bugs out of the initial one I purchased which was damaged.  Agri Supply sent a replacement and I purchased the damaged one for about half price and now have a spare one.

For some reason, I had a gut feeling to deep fry the 19.4 lb. Butterball turkey in the back yard instead of on the carport.  There are many home fires attributed to deep frying a turkey too near to combustible materials.  Sometime in 2020, my Jenn Air gas grill had a serious fire, of which I had to rebuilt the internal works.

Our son Bill also had a Traeger wood pellet grill fire, of which he did not relate that to me, but his bride Nichol ratted him off, whereas his grill fire was human error.............grin if you must!

Here is a video clip of the fire:  VideoClips/IMG_1247.3gp

I am glad a fire extinguisher was close by!

The Carolina Cooker Banjo Burner and stand worked flawless.  If I am not mistaken on the time, it took only four (4) minutes to heat two (2) gallons of cooking oil to 350 degrees F.  I noticed when I slowly let the turkey down into the hot oil, the oil temperature dropped very little from 350 degrees F. and later had to "throttle" the propane gas down to a very small flame due to the very high BTU output of the burner which uses a high pressure regulator preset at 20 lbs.

Bill captured a pix of myself doing the prep work for the turkey on October 14, 2021 which was allowed to thaw out for about a week in the basement refrigerator.

A FEW FOOD PIXS

NOTE:  I was late getting a few food pixs, but posting what was taken. 

Our menu consisted of deep fried turkey, cornbread dressing, giblet gravy, cabbage (two types), collard greens and ham hocks, squash and onions, green bean casserole, sweet potato soufflé, potato salad, deviled eggs, fried apple pies, vanilla pound cake, vanilla ice cream, chocolate ice cream, fruit salad, earthquake cake, rolls, sweet tea and bottled water. 

Squash and onions stewed....hard to tell what it is!

Laura's green bean casserole.

PS  Most of the food items above are on my website recipe page.

CRANBERRY SAUCE DIDN'T MAKE IT TO THE TABLE

I had trouble opening a can of cranberry sauce with a manual can opener and asked our son Bill for help.  He got the top of the can opened, but the cranberry sauce would not come out of the can.  He then put an air hole in the bottom of the can and I was holding a saucer below the can.  The cranberry sauce can was not positioned over the island/work station, but away from it a few inches.  All of a sudden, the cranberry sauce released itself from the can, turned the saucer on its side and the cranberry sauce make a quick decent to the floor.  Below is a pix of where the cranberry sauce landed:

I think most got a good grin and chuckle out of the cranberry sauce saga!

ARCHIVED PIXS FROM 2013, ETC.

I copied and pasted the above pix of the Porter Kids from our Early Thanksgiving 2013.

Pix of Rachel Myers foreground, taken 12-29-2012 at Jerry & Kathy Adcock's home in Monroe, NC.

Pix of Lisa, Lily and Xander taken on Thanksgiving 2018.

Pix of Travis Huneycutt taken on Thanksgiving 2019.

Wink and Rachel Myers taken July 2, 2016 at Janet Harris 80th birthday party.

Haywood Newton far right in pix taken July 2, 2016 at Janet Harris 80th birthday party.

MISS LILY

Our only Grand Daughter Lily Danielle Gonzales was here after her pre-school of which she calls it free school during Bill and Nichols visit, however Lisa kept Xander and Lily out of school for the early Thanksgiving meal.

Lisa had earlier told Lily that her Uncle Bill and Aunt Nichol were coming for a visit and Lily asked her Mom Lisa, "Do you think they will like me" and Lisa told Lily "That they would eat her up."  I think that question from Lily about brought Lisa to tears for sure. 

I think Lily about wore Bill and Nichol out since Lily is mostly non-stop all the time.

Below a few pixs that were taken:

Nichol purchased coloring books for Lily and coloring pencils that kept Lily occupied for a little while.

Lily with a hat aka lid on her head..............grin if you must!

I asked Lily what she was doing and she said "resting."

In closing, everyone had a great time, enjoyed the food and as I like to say at every opportunity, "Two of the Greatest Ships that ever Sailed, Friendship and Fellowship" and family and friends make life worthwhile.

Bill and Nichol will return on the 19th and I will do a fish fry for them in the afternoon and hopefully add a few pixs to this page.

FREE TECH SUPPORT

While Bill was here, I got some free tech support from him.  After my web servers, two (2) of them no longer supported the Microsoft Front Page Extensions, I had to start manually uploading files instead of just hitting one button to publish updates to this website.

To make a long story short, I would drag and drop files using a FTP, aka file transfer protocol program to upload files to my website server and that has been my problem, especially since I broke my right arm near the wrist and had to use my left hand to drag and drop files onto the server, of which I crashed this website two (2) times.

Bill showed me an easy way to upload the files to my website server without having to drag and drop files; instead right click the file and hit the upload feature, whereas you need to be on the correct folder on the server using the FTP program and it is wonderful to say the least.  Old dawgs can learn new tricks....grin if you must!   

Web page published by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 10-15-2021; updated on 10-16-2021 and 10-19-2021.

FISH FRY

Bill and Nichol returned from their trip to Charleston, SC and Columbia, SC on 10-19-2021, of which they spent the night in Charlotte, NC on the 18th and arrived here around 12:06 PM on the 19th.

I planned for a fish fry being gifted of a couple large filled quart bags of White Perch fillets from my friend Robert Webster of Hamlet, NC that were earlier caught in Lake Tillery, NC.

Bill and Nichol took a few sequence pixs of frying the fish and he helped with the breading of the fish...got to work for his meal, right?  Grin if you must!

I believe Nichol took the above pix of Bill inspecting the temperature of the hot oil.  This is the second time I have used the Carolina Cooker Banjo Burner and with the high BTU output, wanted to keep the cooking oil around 350 degrees F. since I wasn't using a high temperature cooking oil such as peanut oil.  The enamel coated cast iron pan works great for "deep frying" fish.

Nichol took another pix and Bill has a good grin going!

Bill took this pix of a couple batches of those "beautimous" golden brown deep fried White Perch fillets, whereas the sun was shinning on them.  Yes, the cook and Bill had to do a little sampling while deep frying the fish!

Bill captured a pix of yours truly removing the fried fish from the pan.  The large stainless steel bowl is quickly becoming filled to the brim.

BELOW PIXS TAKEN IN THE KITCHEN

Yes, those White Perch fillets tasted as good as they look!  Nichol asked what type of seasoning I used and I told her a combination of Moss Seafood Breader, Zatteran Fish Fry Breader, Wild Bill's Meat Rub, Old Bay Seasoning, Salt and freshly ground black peppercorns, (Tellicherry). 

Nichol stated the seasoning was great and not over powering.

I believe this is yours truly plate....what a pile of fish fillets that didn't stay on the plate for long!

Pix of Nichol about to enjoy a plate of White Perch fillets, micro waved sweet potato, home made slaw, and Capt. D's hush puppies.

NOTE:  My bride was in the pix beside Nichol with her hands covering her face since she doesn't like to be photographed lately and I used PhotoShop CS2 and cloned her out of the pix.

Pix of Bill who has "wiped" out the White Perch fillets

After the meal, we relocated to the main living room and continued to catch up on things and before we knew it, it was time for them to depart to Charlotte, NC spending the night there and be at the airport by 9 AM for their 11 AM direct flight from Charlotte, NC to San Diego, CA.

It was wonderful to have Bill and Nichol visit with us and as stated earlier, we had not seen them since our visit with them in 2018.  My bride is no longer able to make the trip due to medical conditions, but does the best that she can.

To reiterate, In closing, we had a great time, enjoyed the food and as I like to say at every opportunity, "Two of the Greatest Ships that ever Sailed, Friendship and Fellowship" and family and friends make life worthwhile.

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 10-20-2021.

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.