The mail yesterday brought me something I will be able to keep that will be a reminder for all seasons for me.
It was a Christmas card, mailed to me by my cousin Becky.
What's so special about this card?
Well, it was made by Becky's mother - one of her last crafting projects, you see, and I knew it was a card made by my Aunt Mary as soon as my fingers touched the card as I removed it from the envelope.
This card is one of those that you do a small holidday message in counted cross stitch and then, paste that embroidered piece inside a card with a special sized opening to hold pieces like that. Aunt Mary, if you have been following my blog for anytime now, just passed away this past October and, I suppose the best term to give her, besides being a loving, lovely aunt, would be that she was my mentor, my guiding star, my surrogate mother, who I frequently turned to over the years for a shoulder to cry on at times and one to give me advice on just about everything.
The fact that her death, the loss there, is still very raw within me, caused me to go sit in my little corner of a room and weep as I read the message on the card as well as the note Becky had put inside with the card. In her note, Becky told how her mother had organized so many things - probably her way of doing things in anticipation of NOT being here with us much longer - and anyway, as such, she had made these cards this past spring, almost all ready to be mailed out. Beck and her younger daughter, Abby, had finished up what was left to be done on the cards, addressed them, made the beautiful little note to be inserted with them and shipped them out.
As Becky wrote at the bottom of the note, this was a message for Christmas, sent by her Mom, from her new home in heaven.
And yes, how much I do agree with Becky's thoughts there.
And also, because of how much Aunt Mary meant to me - to my entire family for that matter - this card has now been placed on the mirror above my dresser in my bedroom. Every day now, as I get up in the morning and look at that mirror, I'll see that card and remember her, the way she was, what she meant to me throughout my entire life and how she also thought to send this card from heaven.
It just makes life and the sadness it often brings much easier to cope with simply by looking at that beautiful card and the message it carries with it.
It brings the Christmas message and the spirit of the season now and enables it to be kept, for me, for all seasons to come, however many they may be.
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Friday, November 24, 2006
Black Friday!
It's here folks! That wonderful, to die for (and sadly, some may if folks keep acting like animals at these sale events), and dream about too for some folks as they plan for this day from one year to the next!
My older daughter and two of her bestest friends ever - from high school - started their own tradition a couple years back of getting together on Black Friday, going to Altoona to hit the malls there - although they don't go the really, really early morning route to catch the really big sales - and thus, by spending the day together, just the three of them, shopping, lunching, gabbing, catching up on everything and anything by being "alone" - without kids or spouses or significant others, they have one heck of a good time.
Last year, they invited my younger daughter to join them on this bonding expedition along with the elder daughter of one of Carrie's friends in the group. They figured at 16 years old, she was old enough for a day with her Mom and her friends I guess.
This year, the five of them will be heading out from here to Altoona at about 8 a.m. to have a good time together. It's been nice to see my girls wanting to do something where they can become closer in some way - as sisters should be, you know. Well, that's my theory on how sisters should be but what the hell would I know about that aspect anyway since I am an only child. Or as Carrie loves to point out to me that I was an only child and therefore a spoiled brat too. Gee, do ya think? Personally, I think that's a bit of the pot calling the kettle black there because in many ways, each of my kids can show a good bit of the "spoiled brat" syndrome too from time to time.
Don't ever think just because there's more than one child in a family that kids don't or can't also get "spoiled" cause they can! To prove my point there, I refer to something a son-in-law of the family who lived next door to me when I was a kid once said on that subject. You see, the Little family next door had 13 children - 11 girls and 2 boys - and this one son-in-law once asked Mrs. Little to please explain to him how on earth his wife, one of their 11 daughters, could possibly have become so spoiled while growing up in a family that big. It does kind of boggle the mind to think how Mrs. Little managed the extra time there with that many children to do any spoiling but, if you'd have ever seen how she (and her husband too) were around children, how they both managed to show the little "extras" of love to each one, you'd know then how that could have happened!
Gotta say this too - having grown up around that family and darned near living over at their house too much of the time - that's another thing to point out - since I am still in the "Thanksgiving" mode - to be really, really thankful for. That family and the one on the other side too - the Nelsons - gave me so much as a child and the giving continued from Mr and Mrs Little and Gert and Howard Nelson right up until they died! Good people, such very good people and so grateful I am to have had the privilege to have known them!
Our Thanksgiving here went very well. Got lots of compliments from all present at the table about the food of which there was plenty! We feasted on turkey (naturally), mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole with the marshmellows on top, green bean casserole, stuffing and applesauce and for dessert, pumpkin pie along with some really, really yummy (Slovak) Nut Rolls and Ladyfingers. Mandy did the mashed potatoes, I did all the rest for the main course and the pies and the nut roll and ladyfingers, we bought from two very good friends here in town who make nut rolls, ladyfingers and some other stuff too for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They take orders and then make up what is needed to fill the orders - nut rolls I think are $6 each and $4 for a dozen of the ladyfingers and boy, are they ever good! These two entrepreneurs are Nila Force and Sue Little Humenay and Sue has another last name now which at the moment escapes me! Drat! I can't keep that straight there but think it is either Croyle or Dunlap and for the life of me I can't remember what it is! Sorry Sue! Well, heck she will always be Sue Little to me anyway! But in my house, my kids and I always just refer to her as "Aunt Sue" because all the kids from the Little family get called Aunt or Uncle by my kids and by me and we've done that for many years now too! That way, we always know who we are talking about in case there are others with the same first name and it saves on remembering last names that way too!
Back to our Thanksgiving Day and dinner, etc now for a bit - there were 9 people here today but only 6 adults and one child around the table, Maya in her high chair and little Kurtis in his exer-saucer! Present and accounted for at the table were: Son-in-law Bill, daughter Amanda, Bill's dad - "Pap", me, my son Clayton, Bill's sister, Kathy and her son, Jared. Everyone had a plate well loaded with food with the exception of Jared. How that child manages to exist on what he eats is beyond me! Today, he had a small serving of mashed potatoes, with no gravy, and a tiny bit of turkey and he barely even touched any of that! He is now I think 7-years old (maybe 8, I lose track there) and this child is something to behold! Cute as a button he is, but boy, now there is the epitomy of a spoiled child, for sure! I will say this - before any of my kids would have a chance to say it first - if one of mine had ever acted the way this boy acts out in public or at other folks' homes, it is highly unlikely mine would have lived to see adulthood - or at least would have had difficulty sitting for a while! He is rude and disrespectful to his mother, his grandfather and it doesn't stop there either! He holds back no punches! Everyone gets the same type of treatment! Although I do have to say today he must have been warned in advance that he best watch his mouth because he and I have often had run-ins in the past when he has been over at our house simply because I will not put up with kids acting like little brats that way! He knows I am the old ogre here and he also knows that his Uncle Billy is not too far behind me in expecting him to act civilized here too. I was a bit concerned when Mandy said he would be coming over with Pap and Kathy about how he and I might manage to get along today if he began to act up but thankfully, he was, for a change, on his best behavior. So, you see, there is just another thing for which I can be very thankful!
Last night, Bill's two middle children - Shane and Sierra - were here and spent the night. This morning, he got up early and cooked breakfast - French Toast - for all of us and then about 10 a.m. he had to have them back to their maternal grandmother's for their Thanksgiving Dinner celebration there. (They live with their maternal grandmother year-round, which probably is a very good thing to help maintain some semblence of "harmony" for Bill and his dealings with his ex-wife, their mother!) When they left, Maya threw one royal fit - crying, howling, sobbing - because she didn't want them to leave! She just worships her half-brother Shane when he is here - follows him around and he pays lots and lots of attention to her, plays with her and keeps her out of trouble by keeping a really close eye on her moves too! She likes Sierra very much too but it is really obvious by her reactions to Shane that she favors him - a lot! Now, if she ever decides to accept her full brother, the little guy here, Kurtis, all will really be right in her (and my) world!
After eating breakfast this morning and getting the veggie dishes ready to put in the oven, turkey already in there cooking away, I hit the sofa and managed to snag a nap for about an hour from 1 to 2 p.m. Got up, finished up the dinner preparations, made gravy, and we sat down to eat around 4:30. By 6 p.m., the only one still here was Clayton, my son, and he was enjoying some quality time on the loveseat, playing with his little nephew, making him chuckle and laugh and taking so much pleasure from being able to do that with the little guy!
I fell asleep on the couch then about 6:30 and didn't fully wake up until around 10 tonight! Wasted is the word that comes to mind to describe my nap time there! I can't really say I was that tired because I overate today - I had only one helping of everything prepared and a piece of pumpkin pie for dessert. There must really be a lot of truth to that bit about turkey making one very, very sleepy cause it sure did a number on me today!
And here I am now - it's almost 2 a.m. and I'm typing away on my blog so as to have at least one posting up on my site for today! Since I will be the babysitter all day today for the two little ones - and because of that I should really be in bed, sleeping away, but I have to get myself re-tired now so I will be able to go to sleep and still get up early in the morning when Mandy leaves to do her "Black Friday" shopping event with her sister and friends - Deb, Gina and Deb's daughter, Alina! And no, I have no desire - narry a one - to join them at the malls and shop till I drop! Cause in my case the drop part would probably take place within an hour after the shopping trip began! I'm too darned old for that stuff any more is my excuse but really, I just have no desire to be out among the throngs looking at very over-priced (usually) merchandise that even on sale, I probably couldn't afford to purchase anyway!
Hope everyone reading this had as nice a day as I had here and that your table was set with as much bounty -or maybe even more - than was ours so that your physical needs were fed. But even more, I hope your emotional and spiritual needs were fed as well and will continue to have that take place throughout the rest of our time here on earth.
Be thankful now that I am signing off from this posting and going to bed! If I can fall back to sleep fairly quickly that will give me yet another thing for which I can say I will be very, very thankful, won't it?
Nite now! Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite!
My older daughter and two of her bestest friends ever - from high school - started their own tradition a couple years back of getting together on Black Friday, going to Altoona to hit the malls there - although they don't go the really, really early morning route to catch the really big sales - and thus, by spending the day together, just the three of them, shopping, lunching, gabbing, catching up on everything and anything by being "alone" - without kids or spouses or significant others, they have one heck of a good time.
Last year, they invited my younger daughter to join them on this bonding expedition along with the elder daughter of one of Carrie's friends in the group. They figured at 16 years old, she was old enough for a day with her Mom and her friends I guess.
This year, the five of them will be heading out from here to Altoona at about 8 a.m. to have a good time together. It's been nice to see my girls wanting to do something where they can become closer in some way - as sisters should be, you know. Well, that's my theory on how sisters should be but what the hell would I know about that aspect anyway since I am an only child. Or as Carrie loves to point out to me that I was an only child and therefore a spoiled brat too. Gee, do ya think? Personally, I think that's a bit of the pot calling the kettle black there because in many ways, each of my kids can show a good bit of the "spoiled brat" syndrome too from time to time.
Don't ever think just because there's more than one child in a family that kids don't or can't also get "spoiled" cause they can! To prove my point there, I refer to something a son-in-law of the family who lived next door to me when I was a kid once said on that subject. You see, the Little family next door had 13 children - 11 girls and 2 boys - and this one son-in-law once asked Mrs. Little to please explain to him how on earth his wife, one of their 11 daughters, could possibly have become so spoiled while growing up in a family that big. It does kind of boggle the mind to think how Mrs. Little managed the extra time there with that many children to do any spoiling but, if you'd have ever seen how she (and her husband too) were around children, how they both managed to show the little "extras" of love to each one, you'd know then how that could have happened!
Gotta say this too - having grown up around that family and darned near living over at their house too much of the time - that's another thing to point out - since I am still in the "Thanksgiving" mode - to be really, really thankful for. That family and the one on the other side too - the Nelsons - gave me so much as a child and the giving continued from Mr and Mrs Little and Gert and Howard Nelson right up until they died! Good people, such very good people and so grateful I am to have had the privilege to have known them!
Our Thanksgiving here went very well. Got lots of compliments from all present at the table about the food of which there was plenty! We feasted on turkey (naturally), mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole with the marshmellows on top, green bean casserole, stuffing and applesauce and for dessert, pumpkin pie along with some really, really yummy (Slovak) Nut Rolls and Ladyfingers. Mandy did the mashed potatoes, I did all the rest for the main course and the pies and the nut roll and ladyfingers, we bought from two very good friends here in town who make nut rolls, ladyfingers and some other stuff too for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They take orders and then make up what is needed to fill the orders - nut rolls I think are $6 each and $4 for a dozen of the ladyfingers and boy, are they ever good! These two entrepreneurs are Nila Force and Sue Little Humenay and Sue has another last name now which at the moment escapes me! Drat! I can't keep that straight there but think it is either Croyle or Dunlap and for the life of me I can't remember what it is! Sorry Sue! Well, heck she will always be Sue Little to me anyway! But in my house, my kids and I always just refer to her as "Aunt Sue" because all the kids from the Little family get called Aunt or Uncle by my kids and by me and we've done that for many years now too! That way, we always know who we are talking about in case there are others with the same first name and it saves on remembering last names that way too!
Back to our Thanksgiving Day and dinner, etc now for a bit - there were 9 people here today but only 6 adults and one child around the table, Maya in her high chair and little Kurtis in his exer-saucer! Present and accounted for at the table were: Son-in-law Bill, daughter Amanda, Bill's dad - "Pap", me, my son Clayton, Bill's sister, Kathy and her son, Jared. Everyone had a plate well loaded with food with the exception of Jared. How that child manages to exist on what he eats is beyond me! Today, he had a small serving of mashed potatoes, with no gravy, and a tiny bit of turkey and he barely even touched any of that! He is now I think 7-years old (maybe 8, I lose track there) and this child is something to behold! Cute as a button he is, but boy, now there is the epitomy of a spoiled child, for sure! I will say this - before any of my kids would have a chance to say it first - if one of mine had ever acted the way this boy acts out in public or at other folks' homes, it is highly unlikely mine would have lived to see adulthood - or at least would have had difficulty sitting for a while! He is rude and disrespectful to his mother, his grandfather and it doesn't stop there either! He holds back no punches! Everyone gets the same type of treatment! Although I do have to say today he must have been warned in advance that he best watch his mouth because he and I have often had run-ins in the past when he has been over at our house simply because I will not put up with kids acting like little brats that way! He knows I am the old ogre here and he also knows that his Uncle Billy is not too far behind me in expecting him to act civilized here too. I was a bit concerned when Mandy said he would be coming over with Pap and Kathy about how he and I might manage to get along today if he began to act up but thankfully, he was, for a change, on his best behavior. So, you see, there is just another thing for which I can be very thankful!
Last night, Bill's two middle children - Shane and Sierra - were here and spent the night. This morning, he got up early and cooked breakfast - French Toast - for all of us and then about 10 a.m. he had to have them back to their maternal grandmother's for their Thanksgiving Dinner celebration there. (They live with their maternal grandmother year-round, which probably is a very good thing to help maintain some semblence of "harmony" for Bill and his dealings with his ex-wife, their mother!) When they left, Maya threw one royal fit - crying, howling, sobbing - because she didn't want them to leave! She just worships her half-brother Shane when he is here - follows him around and he pays lots and lots of attention to her, plays with her and keeps her out of trouble by keeping a really close eye on her moves too! She likes Sierra very much too but it is really obvious by her reactions to Shane that she favors him - a lot! Now, if she ever decides to accept her full brother, the little guy here, Kurtis, all will really be right in her (and my) world!
After eating breakfast this morning and getting the veggie dishes ready to put in the oven, turkey already in there cooking away, I hit the sofa and managed to snag a nap for about an hour from 1 to 2 p.m. Got up, finished up the dinner preparations, made gravy, and we sat down to eat around 4:30. By 6 p.m., the only one still here was Clayton, my son, and he was enjoying some quality time on the loveseat, playing with his little nephew, making him chuckle and laugh and taking so much pleasure from being able to do that with the little guy!
I fell asleep on the couch then about 6:30 and didn't fully wake up until around 10 tonight! Wasted is the word that comes to mind to describe my nap time there! I can't really say I was that tired because I overate today - I had only one helping of everything prepared and a piece of pumpkin pie for dessert. There must really be a lot of truth to that bit about turkey making one very, very sleepy cause it sure did a number on me today!
And here I am now - it's almost 2 a.m. and I'm typing away on my blog so as to have at least one posting up on my site for today! Since I will be the babysitter all day today for the two little ones - and because of that I should really be in bed, sleeping away, but I have to get myself re-tired now so I will be able to go to sleep and still get up early in the morning when Mandy leaves to do her "Black Friday" shopping event with her sister and friends - Deb, Gina and Deb's daughter, Alina! And no, I have no desire - narry a one - to join them at the malls and shop till I drop! Cause in my case the drop part would probably take place within an hour after the shopping trip began! I'm too darned old for that stuff any more is my excuse but really, I just have no desire to be out among the throngs looking at very over-priced (usually) merchandise that even on sale, I probably couldn't afford to purchase anyway!
Hope everyone reading this had as nice a day as I had here and that your table was set with as much bounty -or maybe even more - than was ours so that your physical needs were fed. But even more, I hope your emotional and spiritual needs were fed as well and will continue to have that take place throughout the rest of our time here on earth.
Be thankful now that I am signing off from this posting and going to bed! If I can fall back to sleep fairly quickly that will give me yet another thing for which I can say I will be very, very thankful, won't it?
Nite now! Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite!
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Upcoming Holiday
I know I have mentioned this earlier on my blog about how this year will be the first time in 27 years that my kids and I have had Thanksgiving dinner here at our (my) house - due to the recent change of residence for my Dad's baby sister (age 89) and her daughter. In case you missed that piece of mine, they were removed on August 31st from the family homestead and placed in a rehab/nursing home care facility and there will be no return to the old homestead for them either.
Tonight, a fellow member of the Writer's Life group I belong to placed a little poll thing on the message boards there - asking us to tell what we will be having on our menu for the big, upcoming Thanksgiving Day Feast. That got me to thinking a bit about my plans for that meal that day and I just thought I'd share them here.
Definitely, the meat of the day - main course - will be TURKEY! Since the son-in-law brought home a 20-pound bird on Wednesday and my daughter informed me earlier that we will also be receiving a turkey, compliments of our church and Lutheran Brotherhood/Thrivent, if I were to cook both these birds for the day's meal, we would/could be enjoying turkey in some form or other from next Thursday on thru Christmas Day with no problem! But, that's what freezers are for isn't it - so I will freeze one of these two birds for a family feast later during the winter - some Sunday when all my kids and grandkids can be here to enjoy it!
Next week, it will just be my son, Clate, the younger daughter, Mandy, her husband (Bill - or Wally as he sometimes gets called too) and of course the two little grandkids for sure. Of course, at seven months of age, I don't think Kurtis will be chowing yet on Turkey and the fixings. Carrie, my oldest, informed me earlier this week that she and Robert - her fiance - and her son, Alex, will not be here on Thanksgiving to partake of our big family dinner. I don't know as yet if Bill's older daughter, Katie, (age 14, almost 15 now) will be here or if she will be at her Mom's place and don't know yet either if Bill's two middle children, Shane and Sierra (who live with their maternal grandmother) will be here either. Then there's also the possibility that Bill's dad and maybe his sister will have dinner with us too but no one has given me any type of a head count to work with there as yet!
Ok, so we've already determined I'll be cooking a turkey. And yes, for this occasion, I will break down and peel a bunch of white potatoes and make sure we have a huge batch of "for real" mashed potatoes and also lots of turkey gravy for them too. But the veggies and salad stuff - I hadn't yet given that much thought yet. Mandy, Clate and I all love acorn squash and I tend to think of it as being a really appropriate vegetable for Thanksgiving Day dinner too, so maybe, if I can get to the store and find a couple nice looking ones, we might have baked acorn squash with the meal. Green bean casserole is something lots of folks have as a traditional entre too and that has potential - especially since the son-in-law likes it. If not acorn squash, maybe some dilled carrots or else candied carrots - yams might make the scene too but if I fix the yams, they always tend to mush up for me so that one is iffy there! Now if Carrie would give me her recipe for the baked mashed yam casserole she made two years ago and brought to dinner at our aunt's house that year, it might change my mind about fixing yams as I really enjoyed that dish that year!
Stuffing - to stuff the bird or not or to make a pan of stuffing and bake it on the side, not inside - that is the question. Mandy hates onions but I can't fathom fixing stuffing without onions as well as chopped celery in it. She prefers stuffing (without those items) and also likes it better if it is fxed outside the bird. OK, I can handle the latter aspect there with no problem.
THe sald thing though - that is going to be tricky since I'm not supposed to have any of the good raw veggies that comprise good salads - no lettuce, no raw cabbage, no raw broccoli or cauliflower either for that matter due to the recent abdominal surgery and colostomy I had almost 4 weeks ago now. Boo hiss! I'd love to have either a really good coleslaw or even a salad made with broccoli and cauliflower and bacon pieces! YUMMY! I wonder if I should risk that in my diet?
I have to get a can of cranberry sauce - just thought of that - has to be the jellied kind though and that's fine with me but no turkey dinner at all is complete without lots of cranberry sauce as an accompaniment, is it?
And finally - desserts! If I don't make some pumpkin pie, my daughter (Mandy) will surely pack my bags and kick me out to the curb in very short order! Pumpkin pie is an absolute must there. I'd like to have a mincemeat pie too - maybe some apple pie or cherry as well! I'd much rather give my tastebuds a treat with any kind of pie any day of the week as opposed to cake though - unless of course the cake happens to be Cheesecake. Now that's a horse of a different color there. LOVE CHEESECAKE and I have even recently been able to find at least one recipe for cheesecake that I have been able to make and which turned out really good for me too. Not as good as the cheesecake my daughter Carrie makes with the Bailey's Irish Cream in it though! But we can forget my trying to make that since I won't go buy a bottle of booze with the specific intent to use it in cooking ANYTHING. Just not something I feel my budget can withstand there! I did get a recipe the other day in my e-mail - from one of the recipe things I subscribe to - for Swirled chocolate cheesecake bites which sounds really, really good and doesn't look to challenging to make and maybe I will break down and make some of them for the big event. If not for Thanksgiving, then will definitely try them out for Christmas Dinner dessert!
I might also get ultra ambitious too and bake some fresh Swedish Limpa Rye bread which I love as do all those who will be dining here next Thursday too! If you've never heard of this, never tasted it and if you like Rye breads at all, give it a shot sometime. It's a sweeter lightly flavored rye bread and I think it is just the best rye bread ever! Only problem there is that all the grocery stores near me have stopped carrying rye flour now! Can you imagine that? Why the very nerve of these folks to take that off the shelves! Gonna have to wage a small war I guess to try to get them to restock this item again!
So there you have it - my ideas at this point in time for our Thanksgiving feast! We won't have any big floral type centerpiece or special decor for the day, also no alcoholic beverages either. (Those things are still on the tabu list of my diet for a while longer - drats!) But, we will have a big - very big - meal, for sure and we certainly will share our thanks for being able to have such amounts of food on the table in one sitting as well as being very thankful too for the opportunity to be together as a family for the day! And, for me, I am even more thankful than I have been over the past three years because this time, the day will also be relatively pain free for me! Wish I could invite my surgeon down in Pittsburgh to come join us for the day as I am truly thankful to him for the latter thing I do have to celebrate this year!
What's your plans for the day - big meal at home, eating out, football games on tv, the parades in the early morning hours? Share your plans here please - I'd love to hear what others are going to do and also, things you feel particularly thankful for too!
Oh - and something I left out there in the "thankful for" department - living in what is one of the few really free countries in the world today and being able to even criticize our government too when I feel little bits of dissatisfaction here and there with the way it is being run but don't have to fear being thrown in jail for my thoughts! We really do take that aspect of our lifestyle forgranted all too often don't we?
Tonight, a fellow member of the Writer's Life group I belong to placed a little poll thing on the message boards there - asking us to tell what we will be having on our menu for the big, upcoming Thanksgiving Day Feast. That got me to thinking a bit about my plans for that meal that day and I just thought I'd share them here.
Definitely, the meat of the day - main course - will be TURKEY! Since the son-in-law brought home a 20-pound bird on Wednesday and my daughter informed me earlier that we will also be receiving a turkey, compliments of our church and Lutheran Brotherhood/Thrivent, if I were to cook both these birds for the day's meal, we would/could be enjoying turkey in some form or other from next Thursday on thru Christmas Day with no problem! But, that's what freezers are for isn't it - so I will freeze one of these two birds for a family feast later during the winter - some Sunday when all my kids and grandkids can be here to enjoy it!
Next week, it will just be my son, Clate, the younger daughter, Mandy, her husband (Bill - or Wally as he sometimes gets called too) and of course the two little grandkids for sure. Of course, at seven months of age, I don't think Kurtis will be chowing yet on Turkey and the fixings. Carrie, my oldest, informed me earlier this week that she and Robert - her fiance - and her son, Alex, will not be here on Thanksgiving to partake of our big family dinner. I don't know as yet if Bill's older daughter, Katie, (age 14, almost 15 now) will be here or if she will be at her Mom's place and don't know yet either if Bill's two middle children, Shane and Sierra (who live with their maternal grandmother) will be here either. Then there's also the possibility that Bill's dad and maybe his sister will have dinner with us too but no one has given me any type of a head count to work with there as yet!
Ok, so we've already determined I'll be cooking a turkey. And yes, for this occasion, I will break down and peel a bunch of white potatoes and make sure we have a huge batch of "for real" mashed potatoes and also lots of turkey gravy for them too. But the veggies and salad stuff - I hadn't yet given that much thought yet. Mandy, Clate and I all love acorn squash and I tend to think of it as being a really appropriate vegetable for Thanksgiving Day dinner too, so maybe, if I can get to the store and find a couple nice looking ones, we might have baked acorn squash with the meal. Green bean casserole is something lots of folks have as a traditional entre too and that has potential - especially since the son-in-law likes it. If not acorn squash, maybe some dilled carrots or else candied carrots - yams might make the scene too but if I fix the yams, they always tend to mush up for me so that one is iffy there! Now if Carrie would give me her recipe for the baked mashed yam casserole she made two years ago and brought to dinner at our aunt's house that year, it might change my mind about fixing yams as I really enjoyed that dish that year!
Stuffing - to stuff the bird or not or to make a pan of stuffing and bake it on the side, not inside - that is the question. Mandy hates onions but I can't fathom fixing stuffing without onions as well as chopped celery in it. She prefers stuffing (without those items) and also likes it better if it is fxed outside the bird. OK, I can handle the latter aspect there with no problem.
THe sald thing though - that is going to be tricky since I'm not supposed to have any of the good raw veggies that comprise good salads - no lettuce, no raw cabbage, no raw broccoli or cauliflower either for that matter due to the recent abdominal surgery and colostomy I had almost 4 weeks ago now. Boo hiss! I'd love to have either a really good coleslaw or even a salad made with broccoli and cauliflower and bacon pieces! YUMMY! I wonder if I should risk that in my diet?
I have to get a can of cranberry sauce - just thought of that - has to be the jellied kind though and that's fine with me but no turkey dinner at all is complete without lots of cranberry sauce as an accompaniment, is it?
And finally - desserts! If I don't make some pumpkin pie, my daughter (Mandy) will surely pack my bags and kick me out to the curb in very short order! Pumpkin pie is an absolute must there. I'd like to have a mincemeat pie too - maybe some apple pie or cherry as well! I'd much rather give my tastebuds a treat with any kind of pie any day of the week as opposed to cake though - unless of course the cake happens to be Cheesecake. Now that's a horse of a different color there. LOVE CHEESECAKE and I have even recently been able to find at least one recipe for cheesecake that I have been able to make and which turned out really good for me too. Not as good as the cheesecake my daughter Carrie makes with the Bailey's Irish Cream in it though! But we can forget my trying to make that since I won't go buy a bottle of booze with the specific intent to use it in cooking ANYTHING. Just not something I feel my budget can withstand there! I did get a recipe the other day in my e-mail - from one of the recipe things I subscribe to - for Swirled chocolate cheesecake bites which sounds really, really good and doesn't look to challenging to make and maybe I will break down and make some of them for the big event. If not for Thanksgiving, then will definitely try them out for Christmas Dinner dessert!
I might also get ultra ambitious too and bake some fresh Swedish Limpa Rye bread which I love as do all those who will be dining here next Thursday too! If you've never heard of this, never tasted it and if you like Rye breads at all, give it a shot sometime. It's a sweeter lightly flavored rye bread and I think it is just the best rye bread ever! Only problem there is that all the grocery stores near me have stopped carrying rye flour now! Can you imagine that? Why the very nerve of these folks to take that off the shelves! Gonna have to wage a small war I guess to try to get them to restock this item again!
So there you have it - my ideas at this point in time for our Thanksgiving feast! We won't have any big floral type centerpiece or special decor for the day, also no alcoholic beverages either. (Those things are still on the tabu list of my diet for a while longer - drats!) But, we will have a big - very big - meal, for sure and we certainly will share our thanks for being able to have such amounts of food on the table in one sitting as well as being very thankful too for the opportunity to be together as a family for the day! And, for me, I am even more thankful than I have been over the past three years because this time, the day will also be relatively pain free for me! Wish I could invite my surgeon down in Pittsburgh to come join us for the day as I am truly thankful to him for the latter thing I do have to celebrate this year!
What's your plans for the day - big meal at home, eating out, football games on tv, the parades in the early morning hours? Share your plans here please - I'd love to hear what others are going to do and also, things you feel particularly thankful for too!
Oh - and something I left out there in the "thankful for" department - living in what is one of the few really free countries in the world today and being able to even criticize our government too when I feel little bits of dissatisfaction here and there with the way it is being run but don't have to fear being thrown in jail for my thoughts! We really do take that aspect of our lifestyle forgranted all too often don't we?
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