Thanksgiving
Acorn Man
I hope that your Thanksgiving was as blessed as ours. Once again we were grateful for the health and happiness of our family, a warm loving home, PLENTY of food on the table, and jobs to pay for it all.
My parents came over to share our 23 lb turkey and we were joined by SME and Doug via telephone. SME, we MUST get our webcams hooked up before Christmas!
Our leftovers are now divided into at least 11 more meals and safely stored in our freezer. Over the next few months we'll be enjoying 3 turkey pies, turkey stir-fry, 2 meals of turkey enchiladas, and 5 bags of leftover turkey for sandwiches or hotdishes. As you can tell, my family loves turkey leftovers!
Our boss decided to close for the 4 day weekend, so L and I are enjoying a much needed respite from work. This topic leads me into a mini rant. I absolutely refuse to patronize businesses on holidays! This is just another way that corporate greed is destroying family life. Employees DESERVE this precious time off to spend with family and friends! If everybody would boycott these businesses on holidays, they would quit this practice.
L and I will be using our time off to put up our 13 boxes of Christmas decorations. Yes, I admit it; I love to decorate for holidays and Christmas is my FAVORITE! I LOVE EVERYTHING about Christmas!! I love to decorate, bake, shop, and cuddle up with my family in front of the Christmas tree. L refuses to decorate outside. I agree that a lot of people are way too competitive in their outdoor decorating, but I wouldn't mind hanging a string of icicle lights and a wreath on the front of our porch. L's idea of outdoor decorating is leaving our living room drapes open so that people can see our tree from the road. *sigh*
Today, the Thanksgiving decorations are coming down. I'm sharing a few pictures of my favorites before they disappear for another year. The top pic is of SME's Acorn Man that she made in 1st or 2nd grade. Acorn Man goes up on our closet door in October and stays there through Thanksgiving. When SME reached middle school, she became mortified when I'd hang her old artwork in the public spaces of our home. I solemnly promised that, in the future, I would only display her "ancient" artwork in our bedroom. Homemade tree ornaments are the only exception to this rule. When Z reached school age, SME informed him that Mom would save EVERY "lame" artwork and "haunt" him with it for the rest of his life. This resulted in Z extracting the same "bedroom promise" from me. OK, kids; I kept my end of the bargain. However, I never promised that I wouldn't post your art on the internet. I AM posting from our bedroom, so technically I'm keeping my promise. HeeHee!
posted by tshsmom @ 7:36 AM
21 comments
21 Comments:
Oh fer crying out loud. I can't believe you still have that hideous thing. Z's turkey is way cuter!!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
SME- it is so cool! but I admit parents can be sooooo devious!
Incidentally, you didn't mention what you did with the turkey carcass. Mine always gets boiled up and the stock made into turkey and noodles.
This is especially good if you grilled the turkey on the Weber!
The artwork is BEAUTIFUL! I adore it.
Glad you had a happy Thanksgiving. And greatwhite - we do our Turkey every year out on the Weber. It's delicious and easy.
SME, just look at the expression you drew on his face. Besides, everybody here is agreeing with me! *sticking tongue out*
Bridg, I actually start feeling better this time of year. My allergens are frozen and my arthritis feels better in the lower humidity.
Thanks Mark. Ain't I cute?
Make that 12 meals. I forgot about the carcass in my post. The carcass, neck, and tail get boiled up for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of turkey noodle soup(with homemade noodles) and lefse.
Monica, it's usually too cold here to grill on Thanksgiving. Some years the snow is too deep too. We do smoke at least one turkey every summer on the grill.
Aw come on, it's never too cold to grill. My dad once grilled the Christmas turkey in a blizzard. He set the Kettle just outside the Garage door, ran the door down to head level, and happily stood inside in his bermuda shorts and down coat while he tended to his bird.
I will be grilling one New Years Day!
SME - the decorations your kids make are by far the best kind!
Your Dad sounds like our son-in-law. He wore shorts at my parents cabin(accessible by snowmobile) in late December! He's the only person to EVER do this and nobody's challenging his record.;)
I think the kids' decorations are great. SME and Z are lucky to have parents who care enough to keep and disply their childhood artwork. :-)
Sounds like you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. How nice that you could both have the long weekend.
The lights are my favorite part of Christmas decorations. When we had the house in Grand Haven there were two large picture windows with three smaller windows over each. I was very proud of myself for figuring out how to get lights around all the windows without doubling anything up. I don't have the get-up-and-go to do much more than put up a few lights.
Acorn Man totally rocks!
tshsmom: I am so with you on the boycotting of businesses on holidays. When I worked in retail I couldn't get over the ridiculous expectations they had of us staff. It made me really resentful. Who should have to be at work at 5a.m. on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas and a stat holiday here in Canada) to set up for the sales? NO ONE! It is absolutely corporate greed!
I'm glad you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I actually enjoy it more than Christmas because there isn't the stress of getting all those presents. *not looking forward to shopping*
--Once I'm done buying gifts--I truly begin to enjoy the spirit of Christmas.
Squirl, do you want to come do our lights? Light strings don't like L and I. Every year we have at least one string that goes out on us. As a result, we limit our lights to the tree. We do have a houseful of neat light-up decorations though.;)
Thanks, Shawn! He makes me smile every morning when I go in the closet. (So THERE, SME!)
I loved your turkey! I don't dare show it to Z or he'll want to make one like that. ;)
WC, did you see the news on Friday? People are getting injured in the "super sale" crowds. You couldn't pay me to go shopping on Thanksgiving weekend!
Pretty soon the big stores will start being open 24 hrs for the holiday season. This is SO WRONG!
Sorry to hear that Sadie. I LOVE Christmas and birthday shopping. I shop all year. When I see something, that I know someone on my list will like, I pick it up. I LOVE matching gifts to personalities. One of my most popular toddler(age 3-6) gifts is a tape measure, flashlight, and batteries. Kids love to measure stuff(a great learning tool) and flashlights are ALWAYS popular with them. The new headlight flashlights have been VERY popular with the older kids on my list.
Your post reminds me when I worked in retail. I can't remember how many holidays I've spent away from my family, even after I had a child. :-/
At any rate, sounds like you guys had a great holiday! Glad to hear it. :-)
that's hysterical! Technically you're not breaking your promise.
Notta, my husband and I have always had jobs where we've been able to spend important holidays with our family. I feel very strongly that everybody should be able to do this(other than emergency workers)! Nobody NEEDS to shop on Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter!
I can be very diabolical, Laura ;)
Mwahhahaha!
Heh. We have a collection of all of Junior's old art work. I recently bought him a drawing pad, to make it easier for us to keep his stuff to embarass him later with. ;)
ZS, my motto is: live long enough to be a problem to your kids. ;)
d'oh! you stole my adjective, T! diabolical indeed!
hehehe
i do LOVE the Acorn Man!
ghostie alix
Hi Alix, I've missed you!
Keep visiting us, even if you don't post anymore.
As an aside, we do not all keep a Christian calendar. As we grow in diversity, I hope we will ultimately all be able to worship and cherish our families. As an example, this season, it would have been kind of employers to adjust the work schedules to allow Muslims to work and fast during the day, and feast and pray with their families when the Sun has gone down.
Regarding holy days, we have three Western religions each with it's own "Sabbath." Broadly speaking, the Muslims have Fridays, the Jews have Saturdays, and the Christians have Sundays. These fit nicely together to allow a two-day weekend for any who keeps a Sabbath.
I personally carry the first amendment a little further than some. I agree we cannot nor should impose a religious faith or practice. I agree that the government should be strictly secular -- we can each pray for the souls of the politicians according to our own lights. I agree with passively permitting lawful religious practices of most anything.
I go one step further: I think we should actively foster the circumstances needed to worship. I was raised with Sunday as the Sabbath. I am proud to say my housekeeper comes once a week on Sundays. She is Adventist, and observes her Sabbath from Sundown Friday to Sundown Saturday. A legal immigrant from Romania, she has trouble finding enough work in the South. Everyone wants her on Saturday, and no one will have her on Sunday. I don't think I offend God by employing her in such a way that she may worship as she and her family see fit.
The problem is coordinating our different cultural sectors so we get all the work done, and tend properly to our families. Your town isn't diverse enough, with so small a population, to solve the problems. Jews and Christians should take night shifts during Ramadan. Muslims and Christians should cover for Hannukah and Yom Kippur. Muslims and Jews should cover for Christmas and Easter. In keeping with the beauty of human nature, I think New Year's Eve should be determined by parking lot brawl.
Yeah, MN isn't very diverse, Sage. Your idea would be the way to go in a lot of areas.
"Parking lot brawl" THAT's funny!!
Post a Comment
<< Home