'Another Beautiful Season of Blessings' Recap

Bringing Up Bates "Another Beautiful Season of Blessings"

• As the show opens, the Websters and Zach and Whitney are sitting on the porch at Papa Bill and Mama Jane’s house in Honea Path, South Carolina, waiting for the rest of the family to arrive for Thanksgiving.
• Is Gil’s mom ready for the chaos? “I don’t think you ever get ready,” says Mama Jane, chuckling. “Having Thanksgiving here with all the children, it really is a wonderful thing. I know the children love it, and I know they want to keep coming, but I don’t know how much longer I can lift that turkey.”
• Papa Bill needs help building a barn, so the Bates guys get to work immediately. “I like to see them working together…but I don’t stay long because I get a little bit nervous,” admits Kelly. “I’m just seeing an accident waiting to happen.”
• The guys are hoping to finish the project before they leave. “My family, we love to help,” says Zach. “We can bite off a great project and leave you hanging right in the middle of it.”
• Kelton pulls Evan aside and asks for pointers, as he is planning to seek Gil and Kelly’s permission to court Josie.
• “During our building project, we had some other people competing for our workers,” says Nathan. “Every few minutes, I’d see some little pretty girl walking over there, like one of my sisters…and off they go.”
• Meanwhile, the ladies and kids pick pecans, a Bates family Thanksgiving tradition. They also help Mama Jane make brownies. “Mama Jane has a reputation for being quick to fuss about people being in her kitchen,” says Kelly. “She likes a clean house. But deep down, she loves the kids being there.”
• The following day, Alyssa and Whitney help Mama Jane with supper. Mama Jane asks Alyssa if she’s following in her parents’ footsteps with a baby every year. “This might be the end,” says Alyssa. “Jane, I ain’t having 19 kids. This body needs time to heal.” She also says that she definitely plans to stop if she ends up with four girls. “It’s the drama,” says Alyssa. “I can’t handle it.”
• At lunchtime, the ladies bring food to the workers. “I don’t like to stop work for many things, but I’ll stop anything I’m doing for food,” says Zach. While they eat, the engage in a competition to see who can climb a big tree in the least amount of time.
• “There’s all levels of crazy, and the Bates crazy is on the top level,” says Nathan.
• In the midst of all the chaos, Gil and Kelly sit down with Josie and Kelton for a relationship check-in. “We definitely feel like God is leading us toward the courtship,” says Kelton. He wants to ease into it and asks for permission to make it official around New Year’s.
• Josie and Kelton have been talking for three years, but when things started getting serious early on, Gil asked Josie if she would be okay with “putting the breaks” on the relationship until she got a little older. They ended up taking a break, but Kelton stuck around, and it has been about a year since they got back together. Gil and Kelly grant their permission for the couple to court.
• After the barn is finished, the guys play football (another Bates family tradition). When Mama Jane calls everyone in for supper, they sit down and share what they are thankful for before eating. Gil gets emotional: “I just thank the Lord for getting to grow up here, for my mom and dad and all they did to invest in me, to have a brother like Greg, a sister like Jenny. And I’m just grateful that Mom and Dad are still here, and praise God we get to all be together as a family.”