The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn't

I first apologize for not having pictures right away... I will put some up tomorrow, I promise :)

Tradition in my family for Thanksgiving dinner is as follows (as strange as it may sound, it is what I grew up with and LOVE... plus it's german!): We have turkey, sometimes either rolls or stuffing (maybe we had both one year, I don't remember), blaukraut (cooked purple cabbage), Kloessel (Americans would know this as perhaps a potato dumpling), and this year we also had yams. Each year, it is my job to help make the Kloessel and each year it seems to become a harder task.
This year, I got so frustrated I sat down and almost gave up completely... a few tears later and I was back at it. So here's what has to happen to have this delectible dish: you put cooked (and cooled), pealed potatoes through a meat grinder, then add egg, salt, and flour and mix it all up. Because of the consistancy of the potato, the best way to 'mix' it is to use your hands... like you're making a pizza dough or something. Flour is continually added to the dough until you can form a ball of dough and it is not sticky (the drier the potaoes are, the better). After muliple balls are formed, you put them in a pot of boiling water, then when they float to the top they are done.
For whatever reason this year, the potatoes were very wet and were being stubborn and sticky. Having had this job for quite a few years now, I know it was not my fault that the dough wasn't working how it was supposed to. I got very frustrated, and as I said earlier, sat down and almost gave up. I had been praying that the dough would do what it was supposed to, but maybe I just didn't have enough faith that it would... maybe I needed to learn a lesson and this was the only way to teach me. Either way, I cried a few tears and we figured out a way to get the dough balls 'non sticky' and after they were cooked they tasted wonderful!
The reason I say the 'thanksgiving that almost wasn't' is because had we not figured out a way to do it, I don't know what we would have done for dinner. The Kloessel is the main dish. Dinner was lovely (and super yummy!) and then we sat around talking for a while. Dessert this year was a variety of treats: pumpkin bars, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and apple crisp. Movies and games commenced after dessert and we all had a great time! I'm so thankful this year that even though things didn't go exactly as planned, we had a great time and were able to laugh about things.
Tomorrow I'll post pictures and tell more stories from today! G'nite all :)