Category: HOLIDAYS

BLOGEMBER – DAY 4 – ON THANKSGIVING , IT’S TRADITIONAL FOR MY FAMILY TO…

ON THANKSGIVING, IT’S TRADITIONAL FOR MY FAMILY TO… start the day with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade while we eat a scrumptious brunch – usually a casserole I prepared the day before while I was prepping the sides, desserts and turkey.  I start the gravy base on low and let it simmer.

At some point the football games begin and the aromas start filling the house and senses triggering the mouthwatering desire to eat ourselves into a coma.   These days with my health issues dinner is done in stages throughout the entire day.  As the family gets farther and farther apart in miles, Thanksgiving gets smaller and smaller, which is actually okay with us.  

Whenever possible we watch Miracle on 34th street after dinner to kick off the Holiday season.  During the movie I begin the Christmas cards and start planning for Christmas.

The day after we avoid leaving the house like the plague!  We do start the Christmas decorating and package wrapping while chomping down on turkey sandwiches with homemade cranberry relish on extra sourdough bread or leftover dressing and gravy.

BLOGEMBER – DAY 3 – 5 THINGS I’M THANKFUL FOR

  1.  My biggest blessing is that I’m cancer free for almost 9 years now.  I’ve been thrown a multitude of other health issues to struggle through, but I wake up EVERY single day blessed to try and get past any new issues.
  2. I’m thankful that despite all the health issues and other road blocks that have been thrown our way I’m able to maintain my positive attitude and outlook.
  3. I’m thankful for my husband who has stood by my side through EVERYTHING.  My health has put us to the test of our wedding vows and through it all he has truly been my knight in shining armor.
  4. I’m thankful that my family is safe from all the fires that have been raging in California where 95% of them live.
  5. I’m thankful that the weather looks like it will be beautiful for the drive to the wedding next weekend. 😀

BLOGEMBER – DAY 2 – FAVORITE THANKSGIVING MEMORIES

There are sooooo many memories, but one of my favorite memories actually revolves around some not so fun (at the time) events. 

This memory has different perceptions on the root cause of the issue, but the end event is what I remember most and cherish. 😀 I was super young so I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few things.  Thanksgiving was going to be at our house.  Lots of prep was going on in our tiny kitchen.  The table was set.  The appetizers were arranged in the living room.  The turkey was basting perfectly.  The side dishes were baking and steaming.  Desserts were ready.  The grandparents, aunts and uncles were all on their way.  AND then the unimaginable happened – the garbage disposal backed up!  Not your every day back up, but the oozy black sludge kind that won’t go away!  The kind that prevents you from using the kitchen sink until a plumber arrives.  This was also before cell phones so there was no way to stop the travelers from first arriving at our house.  Many were coming from long distances.

My grandparents only lived 3 blocks away.  The decision was made to move the day to their house, but ALL the food was at our house.  Ultimately, my grandfather brought over their station wagon and laid all the seats flat (one of the better features of an old Chevy tank).  My dad put down a blanket and my uncle and I climbed in.  All the food was then arranged around us so we could try and stabilize it on the ride over to grams and gramps. 

I don’t remember now if anything was too cold or even too warm, but I do remember that in the end we still had a fun Thanksgiving at grams and gramps house with the whole family and there was a HUGE mess to clean up the next day at our house 😀

BLOGEMBER – DAY 1 – THE BEST THING ABOUT THANKSGIVING

I came up with a new way to keep my momentum on posting regularly.  Here’s my list for the first half of November.  I ended up choosing BOLGEMBER because the “ember” part made me think about a burning fire and harvest colors.

This is a tough category because there are SO MANY items, but I’ll narrow it down a bit.

  • BEING THANKFUL – I know it sounds cliche, but it truly is one of my favorite things about thanksgiving.  For one, it’s a non-religious holiday that is the most inclusive of our culture.  If you’re American, it is assumed that you celebrate Thanksgiving.  Setting aside time to give thanks for one’s blessings, along with holding feasts to celebrate a harvest, are both practices that long predate the European settlement America.  While Thanksgiving as we know it has adapted to fit what we like and shows very little resemblance to the original American Thanksgiving, the reason for it still exists.  It is the one holiday that is NOT really commercialized and is only about spending time with family and friends!
  • FRIENDS & FAMILY – MEMORIES – When I was a kid, most things were closed on Thanksgiving.  You’d find an occasional store open for last minute things like milk, bread and butter to put the finishing touches on your big dinner day, but for the most part EVERYTHING was closed and the day was spent at home with family and friends, eating yourself into comas, playing or watching football…
  • FALL SEASON – Since it is primarily a harvest celebration, the timing of the season is GORGEOUS!  The reds, oranges, yellows and ultimately browns of the leaves falling and the grasses dying for the season lend their “hands” to the gorgeous display of color.
  • AMAZING FOOD – When I was a kid my dad would start the prep days before for the BIG day.  He made the most amazing turkey and cornbread stuffing!  Over the years I have recreated his stuffing to my own Sourdough Herb version and added my own homemade cranberry relish to replace the canned stuff.  Personally, I’m not fond of the canned relish, but my son will eat nothing but! LOL 😀  The desserts used to be traditional pumpkin, apple and mincemeat pies, but I have adapted these also to add some homemade apple bread pudding, “regular” bread pudding (recipe below) and baked pineapple.  The gravy is still dad’s recipe minus the giblets. 😀  I see I need to get a few new pictures this year to update my recipes.

  • OFFICIAL START OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON – I have to start the day with the Macy’s parade while I’m bustling around the kitchen!  It is a tradition I’ve never grown out of.  It is also okay to officially start watching Christmas movies, though truth be told I do year round thanks to Hallmark 😀  There are also a handful of Harvest festivals and craft fairs to attend.

 

BLOGTOBER – DAY 31 – HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS

We don’t do a ton of Halloween decorating, but we do get enough kids to do enough.  The neighborhood does quite a bit too. This is our front porch decorations.  

This is George and Elmer right after we assembled them. 

This is George and Elmer after it started getting dark.  The are on a timer, but are also motion activated so it was hard to get a picture.

This is Wilbur my pumpkin totem.  He’s unique that on the back side is Frosty the Snowman making him the perfect fall decoration – Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all in a single decoration – just turn him around!

 

 

BLOGTOBER – DAY 30 – CREEPY READS

Today’s prompt is “CREEPY READS”.  I love Stephen King novels, but I’m more of a watch his movies than read his books type.  There is an author I love to read, Jana DeLeon, and while her books can be creepy, some of them are just eerie or mysterious bordering on creepy!  But, they are also fun.

  • The Miss Fortune series (16 books) is the most fun with titles like Louisiana Longshot, Lethal Bayou Beauty, Swamp Sniper, Swamp Team 3, Gator Bait, Soldiers of Fortune, Hurricane Force, Force Hunter, Later Gator, Hook – Line & Blinker, Change of Fortune, Reel of Fortune, Swamp Spook, Fortune Furlough, Cajun Fried Felony and Swamp Santa which just came out.
  • The Ghost-in-Law Mysteries (8 books) are actually funny with titles like Trouble in Mudbug, The Helena Diaries, Mischief in Mudbug, Showdown in Mudbug, Resurrection in Mudbug, Missing in Mudbug, Chaos in Mudbug and Rose and Helena Save Christmas.
  • The Happily Ever After series (7 books) are eerie and funny too with titles like Dead Man Talking, Once Hunted  Twice Shy, Fooled Around and Spelled Love, Witchful Thinking, Total Eclipse of the Hunt, Curses and Cupcakes, and An Everlasting Christmas.
  • The Shaye Archer series (7 books) is the most creepy with titles like Malevolent, Sinister, Diabolical, Wicked, Unseen, Dreadful and Damned, but always leans towards positive outcomes.

BLOGTOBER – DAY 29 – FAVORITE SYFY type of SHOWS

For some Halloween means SCARY, HORROR type shows and movies like Nightmare on Elm Street or Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Me, I prefer the science fiction type shows.  The SYFY channel used to be one of our favorite places for many types of series and a go to on Saturday nights for a good movie.  In recent years, NOT so much.  But we do have some favorite series from years gone by.  Many of these fall into several categories, including comedy.

  • Z NATION – Z Nation begins three years into a zombie apocalypse caused by a virus that has already killed most humans. In the days just before society fell apart, Murphy was one of three inmates who were unwilling participants in a government-approved experiment. Each inmate was given a different test vaccine. Murphy was the only one to survive the vaccine injection. He is the only known survivor of a zombie bite who did not turn into a zombie, and his blood contains antibodies that are mankind’s last and best hope for a vaccine. The series revolves around his travels with a small group of survivors being led through the apocalypse by Simon “Citizen Z” Cruller, who watches the world from his multiple computers. The group is looking to use him to solve the zombie pandemic.
  • EUREKA – A year prior to the season five premiere, at the time production for that season was nearly done, the series was originally going to be renewed for a sixth and final season but was instead cancelled. In addition, Syfy ordered an extra episode to wrap up the series.
  • HAVEN – Loosely based on The Colorado Kid by Stephen King. The third-person narrative concerns the investigation of the body of an unidentified man found on a tiny island off the coast of Maine. Lacking any identification or obvious clues, the case reaches nothing but repeated dead ends. Over a year later the man is identified, but all further important questions remain unanswered. The two-person staff of the island newspaper maintain a longstanding fascination with the case, and twenty-five years later use the mysterious tale to ply the friendship and test the investigative mettle of a post-graduate intern rookie reporter.
  • SLIDERS – The series followed a group of travelers as they used a wormhole to “slide” between different parallel universes.
  • WAREHOUSE 13 – The series follows two U.S. Secret Service Agents when they are assigned to the secretive Warehouse 13 for supernatural artifacts. 
  • SANCTUARY – A doctor and her team study and protect the strange creatures living in their world.
  • STARGATE SG1 – The story of Stargate SG-1 begins about a year after the events of the feature film, when the United States government learns that an ancient alien device called the Stargate can access a network of such devices on a multitude of planets. SG-1 is an elite United States Air Force special operations team, one of about 20 teams from Earth who explore the galaxy and defend against alien threats such as the Goa’uld, the Replicators and the Ori. The series draws upon Egyptian mythology, Greek mythology, Norse mythology and Arthurian legend.
  • STARGATE UNIVERSE – A group of people form the crew of the ancient ship Destiny, which travels through the universe looking for evidence of an intelligence from before time itself.
  • STARGATE ATLANTIS – Universal Stargate teams explore the city of Atlantis in far away galaxy. This was a spin-off from the  Stargate SG-1 series.
  • THE LIBRARIANS – A group of librarians sets off on adventures in an effort to save mysterious, ancient artifacts. 

BLOGTOBER – DAY 28 – WISHLIST FOR THE FUTURE aka FALL BUCKET LIST

It’s been fall around here for over a month already. I’ve actually already done a few of these things, but I still added them to the list, because they are multi-step items or I might want to do them again. Completed items are in red and italics. I’d love to hear what is on your bucket list for fall. Here’s my list.
  • Make a new and inventive dessert EACH week
  • Make apple butter
  • Roast marshmallows around the fire
  • Curl up with a terrific book
  • Take a drive to look at fall foliage 
  • Sip hot apple cider
  • Finish several smaller quilts
  • Eat chili – I have several different flavor chilis and try to get them ALL worked into the fall months.
  • Decorate for Halloween
  • Try a new soup or stew
  • Make pumpkin cut out cookies with my new sugar cookie recipe
  • Make some crafts with the munchkins
  • Collect leaves and seed pods to decorate
  • Take a walk and enjoy the color changing leaves
  • Make jam
  • Make homemade cocoa
  • Bake banana, pumpkin and lemon bread
  • Bake cookies
  • Make Neighbor plates of goodies
  • Make homemade Vanilla
  • Make Christmas gifts
  • Watch Christmas movies
  • Watch MORE Christmas movies
  • Listen to Christmas music
  • Get updated addresses for my Christmas card list
  • Burn cinnamon and spicy pumpkin candles
  • Read by candlelight and lamplight
  • Decorate House
  • Read a wonderful Christmas book 
  • Decorate our Christmas tree
So this is my list, what’s on your list? 

BLOGTOBER – DAY 22 – MORE FALL CLOTHING

Have I mentioned that I LOVE fall?  If you missed it, let me say it again.  I LOVE FALL!  And I especially LOVE fall clothing so this category deserves a second day 😀

Recently I ran into JC Penneys for some towels and passed by the shoe department and a sign that literally said Buy 1, Get 2 free!  How do you pass up a deal like that?  For me it was especially fitting because I have needed ALL new shoes as well as clothes since losing all the weight after that last surgery.  Who would have thought you’d lose shoes sizes, but I did – an entire size!  So this is my fun purchase where I not only took advantage of the sale, but also a 20% off coupon and was able to buy 3 pair for $64. 😀 My tootsies are staying toasty this fall!