Happy Thanksgiving...

  This is one of my favorite Norman Rockwell paintings. "Freedom from Want"..  I love it..  It reminds me of the Thanksgivings we would spend with family when I was a little girl. Often we would ride over the river and down the expressway to Southfield to Spend Thanksgiving with my Aunt Ellen and Uncle Ralph. I would bang around on the old piano in the back room. The kids tables would be set up out there.. The adults would eat at the large kitchen table. I counted the days till I could eat at the big table.

   Then some Thanksgivings were spent at Grandma and Grandpa's farm in Parma. Grandma would get out the good china and glasses. She would put the fancy tablecloths on the table and get out the cloth napkins. Grandma would wear her fancy apron, you never saw grandma without an apron on. We would have fancy jello salad appetizers, and my favorite was getting to drink Cranberry juice out of fancy glasses. We would eat till we thought we would burst. My favorite was always the Stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pie.

   There were a couple of years that we would head back south towards Detroit and my cousin Paul's or Cousin Richard's house. The families were growing in size and we needed more room for kids tables. I loved the Thanksgivings when there was snow and we'd take the sled around the yard, or the kids would make the ice skating pond. I was to afraid to skate, but I loved watching the others.

   These days we are home and try to have the kids and grandkids come here and eat. I love cooking. I hope to be able to do it for many years. I can't wait for the day when the grandkids will bring their families to Grandma Karen's house to eat Thanksgiving dinner.

There are No fancy plates here. We use the good Hefty foam plates, and eat on trays in the living room gathered around the TV. It's hectic and chaotic like all really good family Holiday dinners should be. I still like that we talk about what we are thankful for. I still make the kids be quiet so we can thank God for all His blessings. I still get tears for a few minutes thinking about the family members that could not join us this year, and the ones who are eating Thanksgiving dinner in Heaven.

I hope whether you are eating on foam plates, or the best china. Whether you are eating turkey, ham, or neither. whether you are with family or with a few friends. I hope that you can remember a few wonderful things you love about Thanksgiving. I hope you can say a few things you are thankful for, And I hope you can spend some time remembering those you love.

Happy Thanksgiving.. God Bless you !

To Do Or Not To Do. That Is The Question...

When I was looking for an image of a "to do list" I found this, and I thought it was perfect. I need to make a to do list for this next week, and it seems as though I should also make a "to don't list". 


I'm making Thanksgiving Dinner this year so my "to do" list will be full. 


To do: 
1. take out turkey on Sunday to thaw. (I'm cooking it on wed.)

2. Go celebrate friend Connie's Birthday in Frankenmuth and Christmas shop while there. 


3. Plan the Devotional for my Ladies Prayer group for Tuesday Morning. 


4. Clean the house. 


5. Make the pie, cranberry sauce, and pick up last minute stuff for dinner. 


6. Get the blow-up mattresses and bedding out for the grandkids who will be spending the night. 


7. Clean some more. 


8. make The rest of the Thanksgiving dinner, eat, visit with family and clean up.


9. Black Friday shop online or maybe even head out to the stores that are open  Thanksgiving night.  


10. Try to make the dinner with the extended family. (weather permitting) 


To Don't: 


1. Don't worry if everything isn't perfect. I'm the only one who thinks it should be. 


2. Don't buy things that are not on the list. (including food and gifts) 


3. Don't get all stressed if people are late to Thanksgiving Dinner. No one has ever died in our home from not eating at the exact moment planned. 


4. Don't try to do everything yourself. People will help If  I ask them to. Remember it's a family holiday and they really want to help. 


5. Don't worry if I am the only one who wants to watch "Miracle on 34th street". I can watch it when they all go home. (I can watch it everyday if I want) 


6. Don't judge words or actions today. Give out an extra measure of Grace and forgiveness. 


7. Don't think everyone wants my opinion about everything. Remember. it's OK to keep my opinion to myself. They really will ask if they want it. 


8. Don't bring up the past. It's done and over with. Focus on the future and be positive and encouraging. 


9. Don't Ask the husband if he "really needs" that 3rd helping of dressing. No, he doesn't need it. I already know that. He just wants it cause it's his favorite. 


10. Don't forget to Thank God for it all. The family, the food, the cleaning, the dirty dishes, the tums, the chaos. My life would be so lonely and boring without it. 

MADEA’S 10 RULES FOR THANKSGIVING DINNER GUESTS (Clean Version)

I found this on a friends facebook post. I've cleaned it up a bit.. Enjoy.. 

MADEA’S 10 RULES FOR THANKSGIVING DINNER GUESTS

1. Don’t get in line asking questions about the food. “Who made the potato salad? Is it egg in there? Are the greens fresh? Is the meat in the greens turkey or pork? Who made the macaroni and cheese? What kind of pie is that; who made it? Ask one more question and I will punch you in your mouth, knocking out all your fronts so you won’t be able to eat anything.

2. If you can’t walk, or are missing any limbs, sit yourself down until someone makes your plate for you. Dinner time is not the time for you to be independent. Nibble on them peanuts and walnuts to hold you over until someone makes you a plate.

3. If you have kids under the age of 12, I will escort their little bodies down to the basement and bring their food down to them. They are not going to tear up my clean house this year. Tell them that they are not allowed upstairs until it’s time for Uncle Butchie to start telling family stories about their mommas and papas. If they come upstairs for any reason except that they are bleeding to death, It will not be pretty.

4. There is going to be one prayer for Thanksgiving dinner! JUST ONE! We do not care that your are thankful that your 13yr old daughter gave birth to a healthy baby or your nephew just got out of jail. Save the talk for someone who cares. The time limit for the prayer is one minute. If you are still talking after that one minute is up, you will feel something hard come across your lips and they will be swollen for approximately 20 minutes.

5. Finish everything on your plate before you go for seconds! If you don’t you will be fussed at and asked to stay your greedy self home next yr.

6. BRING YOUR OWN TUPPERWARE!! Don’t let me catch you fixing yourself a plate in my good Tupperware knowing full well that I will never see it again! Furthermore, if you didn’t bring anything over, don’t let me catch you making a plate, period, or it will be a misunderstanding.

7. What you came with is what you should leave with! Do not leave my house with anything that doesn’t belong to you. EVERYBODY WILL BE SUBJECTED TO A BODY SEARCH COMING AND GOING OUT OF MY DOMAIN!!!

8. Do not leave your kids so you can go hopping from house to house. This is not a DAYCARE CENTER. There will be a kid parent roll call every ten minutes. Any parent that is not present at the time of roll call, your child will be put outside until you come and get them or her. After 2 hours I will call ACS on 

you!!!

9. BOOK YOUR HOTEL ROOM BEFORE YOU COME INTO TOWN!! There will be no sleeping over at my house! You are to come and eat dinner and take your (self) home or to your hotel room. EVERYBODY GETS KICKED OUT AT 11:00 pm. You will get a 15 minute warning bell ring.

10. Last but not least! ONE PLATE PER PERSON!! This is not a soup kitchen. I am not trying to feed your family until Christmas dinner! You will be supervised when you fix your plate. Anything over the appropriate amount will be charged to you before you leave. There will be a cash register at the door. Thanks to Cousin Alfred and his greedy family, we now have a credit card machine! So VISA and MASTERCARD are now being accepted. NO FOOD STAMPS OR ACCESS CARDS YET!

What We Did On Our Fall Vacation...

We left for 3 weeks of fun and vacation the first part of Oct. 

Our place in Ky. is a bit Rural. Our place also grows trees, flowers, and weeds 

as though they were in the middle of the jungle. 

The heat and the rain made for quite a bit of "cleaning up" for husband Ken.

This is an example of what we found. This is the north side of our old store building. 

if you look closely you can see the poor rose bush in there still trying to bloom amongst the trees, (yes, I said trees, we chop them out once a year) poison oak, Johnson grass, and the remains of a few flowers. 

This is a better photo of the roses. There were still several buds waiting to open. 

This is the South side of the same store building. you can't see the rose bush on this side. 

It's there, just overrun with Trees, (one is a good 2 ft. taller then the roof) and weeds. 

This is the East side of the barn. There is Polk growing here and lots of trumpet vine. 

Husband is allergic to trumpet vine. We cleaned this up very carefully. 

The North side of the store building. We took out the brick flower bed. 

Ken also painted this building and the east side of the barn. 

This side of the building still has lots of spring flowers that will be pretty in the spring, 

but will be easier for our "new" mowing kid to weed eat and mow around. 

The south side of the store building. It looks a lot better since

hubby painted it. I don't have a good photo of it.. so let your imagination 

run wild. LOL  it's White paint.. Not to much to imagine. 

I love how the roses still continue to bloom in all that mess.. 

:-)

I know shocking isn't it.. the East side of the barn. 

We removed the telephone poles and the flower bed. 

over the years the Polk choked out all the flowers. 

now our " new mowing kid' can mow right up to the barn. 

The trumpet vine has since been removed. 

Ken continuing his cleaning up of the gymnasium foundation. 

Poor hubby, he dug up stumps, trimmed bushes and trees, cleaned 

out flower beds, and burned huge brush piles. 

Most of the cleaning up is now done. There is still one big brush pile out back 

to burn, but we can do that on our next trip down. 

We both spent a lot of time outside. Ken doing all the hard work,

me running the wheelbarrow and providing food, drinks, and comedy relief.