The Ongoing Thanksgiving Season

I've decided to expand that "Thanksgiving Feeling" to a longer season. No reason some of the thoughts and sentiments which Thanksgiving calls forward cannot be extended into the Christmas season. There is so much for which to be thankful.

And you really can't eat all the Thanksgiving Recipes on Thanksgiving. Already, our Thanksgiving has been stretched out. We were supposed to serve dinner to guests, then go over to David's parents' house for supper. But one of our guests locked herself out of her apartment, away from the Sweet Potato Pie, Cake, and Ham she had prepared. Another prospective guest took off to try to find a way to open the apartment. So we had company into the evening. But David still got some of his Mom's coconut pie on Friday. We missed Debbie, but saw Donny, Carmine, Mom, Dad and Aunt Helen.

This year, Ken brought a "complete dinner" again, so I just had to fill in with a few extra dishes. I made "boiled" ham, (a small butt portion ham) in an oval 6-quart slow cooker, pumpkin bread pudding, cauliflower and broccoli, and I tried to make this cornbread dressing, but got distracted and burned the cornbread and pecans. Later. I haven't made Dixie Salad yet, either.

Earlier, I posted on the Pilgrim's struggle against famine here. No matter how hard our economic circumstances are this year, things could be worse.

No time to write more now. Hope everyone continues to have a nice Thanksgiving-to-Christmas season.

Some interesting thoughts on Thanksgiving

From last year - Thanksgiving Proclamations and Thoughts.

This year, an academic piece on the importance of keeping gratitude at the center of Thanksgiving.

We are so blessed in this country. Quotes from a beautiful piece below:

This is indeed a big country, a rich country, in a way no array of figures can measure and so in a way past belief of those who have not seen it. Even those who journey through its Northeastern complex, into the Southern lands, across the central plains and to its Western slopes can only glimpse a measure of the bounty of America. . . .

So the visitor returns thankful for much of what he has seen, and, in spite of everything, an optimist about what his country might be. Yet the visitor, if he is to make an honest report, must also note the air of unease that hangs everywhere. . . .

We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth. . . .

William Bradford, some years after the first Thanksgiving:

Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone to many, yea in some sort to our whole nation; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise.

Fred and Jenny Getting Married

Fred and Jenny are getting married today. Wish we could be there. It's a pretty good idea to get married 2 days before Thanksgiving, I think.

The family was over decorating for the reception yesterday. Mom made sandwiches. Hope everyone has a wonderful time today.

A thought for Friday the 13th

Dennis Prager: "Any day when something terrible doesn't happen is a great day".

Nothing terrible happened to me today. It was a great day.

Thanking Our Veterans

A Veteran knows things: He knows life is precious, because he’s seen
life cut short. He knows life is strange, because those that should die
live and those who have the most life sometimes die. He knows life is
not easily wrapped up in a box philosophically. He knows that plans
fail. He knows there’s such a thing as luck. A veteran chooses his hard
lessons and walks toward them.

Veterans at the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. The video is kind of hard to get through without a tear or two. They were brought to the memorial by an organization dedicated to providing such trips. An American volunteer organization which de Toqueville might recognize as similar to the voluntary organizations of yesteryear which he thought were such an important feature of American culture. I expect that this organization would accept a donation from you.

Two songs, one for WWII and Korean vets, the other for Vietnam Vets. More tears for me, especially knowing some of the experiences David's Dad went through. And the trials that others in our families and among our friends have gone through. The website supports training for companion dogs for disabled veterans. Such a great idea. They accept donations. Or, there's this bipartisan effort, started on 11/11, to encourage 11 million Americans to donate 11 dollars to veteran support groups.

The VFW in our little town have been out handing out little poppies for donations for a couple of days now. I first saw them on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I always donate and pick up a couple of poppies, even though the fabric ones of today aren't as nice as the paper ones, handmade, they used to hand out.

Once, on a night train with Yvonne to Paris, I woke up in the early morning to see a field of poppies out the train window, just like the poppies in Flanders Fields. Kind of made the poem real to me. Europe has seen so much war over the centuries and suffered through two horrific wars in the last century. Right where I was at that moment, there may have been a battle in the past. Certainly there were battles not far from there. But the field looked peaceful from my train window in the dawn light.

I know it's not Memorial Day, but Veteran's Day also makes me think of Grandpa Smith, a chaplain in World War I. Flanders is, of course, in Belgium, from whence he was writing.

Hope your Veterans Day today is rich and meaningful.

I got tagged

Brandy tagged me with a list. She had a lot of good stuff on hers. Mine's a little weird, I think.

Five Things I Don't Leave the House Without
1. Purse
2. Keys
3. Shoes
4. Eyeglasses
5. Pen & paper

Five Cartoons I Watched When I Was Younger
1. Mighty Mouse
2. Bugs Bunny
3. Rocky & Bullwinkle
4. Fractured Fairytales
5. The Roadrunner

Five Things That Terrify Me (or at least creep me out)
1. Things that go bump in the night
2. Being chased by a wolverine at twilight
3. Emotional confrontations
4. Being really unprepared (like when you start to dream about going to an interview in your bath towel)
5. A prowler in the yard

Five Things I Hate/Dislike That Everyone Else Seems to Like
1. Most board games
2. Most card games
3. Playing touch football
4. Action movies with no plot, quite a few TV shows
5. Willie Nelson's voice. Bob Dylan's is a little unusual, too.

Five Things I Want to do Before I Die
1. Get really, really organized and focused on what's important
2. Teach David how to dance (even a little bit)
3. Go to visit Yvonne and Attila in Switzerland, maybe do a better job of visiting Italy.
4. Become an expert - at something.
5. Make amends

By the Way: 10 new recipes up. Potluck dishes, salads, winter suppers, etc.

History - 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall with Alvin and the Chipmunks.

And a highly recommended comedic movie set in Berlin just before the wall went up, One, Two, Three. The review, here, reveals some of the gags. Gives you just a taste of what was going on at the time in Germany.

Happy Halloween

Another little trip coming up. David's Mom and Dad will be staying at the house.

For Halloween, some professional-level pumpkin carvings. And a Catholic priest talks about the current vampire craze. Whoa. An artist carves Tigerhawk's face. Scared the kids, he says.

Update: We didn't get any trick-or-treaters. Too far from other (inhabited) houses, I guess. Tonight we "fall back" to standard time. An extra hour of sleep, which we will lose in spring.