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Thursday, November 20, 2008

Thanksgiving

I know, Thanksgiving is next week, but I've been thinking about Thanksgiving lately and I thought I'd share some of my memories.
Thanksgiving, for most of my childhood meant getting up early to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while my mom cooked, driving across (or into, when we lived out in country) town to my Grandma's house. The day was typically crisp, cool, sunny with beautiful autumn leaves in the yard along the drive. I think one year there was snow, but for the most part, it was just a beautiful fall day.
We'd usually arrive at Grandma's around 1 or 1:30 in the afternoon. We'd already be hungry because our house smelled like pumpkin pies and stuffing as that's what my mom always brought. We'd all be snacking from the relish tray, avoiding the celery and trying to grab as many black olives as possible. We always ran out of black olives, for some reason we never had extra cans waiting to fill it back up.
Then we'd eat our Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner, the men would excuse themselves to go back to their football game on TV and the ladies would do the dishes. Only after the dishes were done did we get pie. Then we ate our pie and played Trivial Pursuit. That was my typical Thanksgiving.
One year we had my mom's side of the family over for Thanksgiving. I think it was one of those "we'll celebrate Thanksgiving on another day because that's when we can all come" things. I must have been somewhere around 15 or 16 at the most. We had a fabulous feast, nothing was missing and when we finished everyone was stuffed! My dad was watching TV with my uncle Steve and his twin boys who are 3 months younger than me. My dad likes to make jokes, so he said he had a good idea..."why don't we order some pizza?" What my dad didn't think about was that he was talking to teenage boys, you know the kind, their stomachs are never full. He ended up ordering pizza and they ate it! After having a huge Thanksgiving dinner!
That story makes me laugh every time I think about it. Just shows that sometimes, it's better to keep that funny thought to yourself!
So, those are my Thanksgiving memories, what are yours?

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Paula Deen Cookbook Giveaway

Well if you know me, you know I love winning free things! Surprises are great. You might have noticed the button on the right that has Paula Deen's cookbook for kids. Well they're giving a copy away at : http://www.shortpumppreppyshopping.blogspot.com/
If I'm lucky, the link will be there, otherwise, just click on the button and it will take you there! I think this is a really cute cookbook and I know one little boy that would be thrilled to use it to make some yummy things with mommy!

The Sounds Around Us

Have you ever really stopped to listen to the sounds around you? All the tiny sounds that if you don't stop to listen to, you never really hear. I did that this morning. I tend to do that when I need to walk the dogs as long as Ian is still in the house. If I have Ian with me, I don't hear the sounds because he is a noisy boy.
So what sounds did I hear? I heard little birds chirping in the field behind my house. They sounded happy to be out flying in the sunshine. I heard the wind blowing through the dry tall grasses and it reminded me of the wind blowing over the prairie back home. I heard the hum of the highway a few miles away reminding me that people are busying going somewhere, even if for today, I'm not. I heard the train blowing its whistle as it roared through town. I heard the large bird that sits up high in an evergreen tree and calls out "mom, mom". It really does sound like that, I've actually thought Ian was calling me before when it was really that bird.
The sounds around us are a reminder that there is life going on all around us. There is beauty in listening to God's creation.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Rain

Well, the title says it all. Rain. We've got it and plenty of it. Of course if you don't live in the Pacific Northwest you might not understand what I mean when I say rain. You might think, oh a storm with some showers.
Nope. I mean rain. Constant damp drizzling, sometimes sideways, definitely gusty rain. The kind that an umbrella does very little to help you because it's all blowing under the umbrella and coming in at all sides. Yuck!
And I have two doggies that have to be walked. Yuck again! I've only walked one so far this afternoon and am trying to recover enough from the first walk to venture out for the second one.
Poor Dilly, she's been banished to the garage until she can dry off. Buster thinks he'd like to go out, but I'm sure he'll change his mind once we get out there. I walked him this morning when it was only drizzling and he had to keep shaking off while we were walking. I can only imagine how much he's going to love his walk in a total downpour.
Well, I suppose I can't put it off any longer. Wish me luck and pray for sunshine!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Cooking Day

Today turned out to be a kind of cooking day for me. The cooking started yesterday when I peeled tons of apples (enough to fill up my crockpot) and started a batch of apple butter. I love homemade apple butter! It makes my house smell so yummy.
The apple butter was done this afternoon so I canned most of it. I had a little left that wasn't enough to fill a canning jar full, so that went into the fridge.
I had also promised Colin I would make brirocks, which are rolls stuffed with a mixture of cooked hamburger, cabbage, onion and carrot. I didn't really feel like making them, but I had promised so I made them. Yum. Ian ate two of them! I think Colin was pretty happy with them, too!
I did get a nice surprise in the mail today. I received a prize from Lipton tea. I entered a contest they had an eon ago (okay, it was probably this summer) and I won $25. Pretty cool, huh? I love that kind of mail!
After all the cooking today I don't feel like cooking much tomorrow. We'll see what the menu is tomorrow. It might be Fend For Yourself night around here!