Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Everyone is happy but the turkeys! 

Far Side

Happy Thanksgiving!

 We plan to gather for dinner with my baby brother, his bride and our Mother.  They are doing the turkey.  I made the pumpkin pie without a crust, green beans with bacon and the mashed potatoes.

Most people are traveling a long way for Thanksgiving, we will hop in Ranger Blue and drive a half of a mile.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! 

Far Side

Thanksgiving Day

 We will have turkey dinner here at home just the two of us...we will join our youngest daughter, her husband and some of our Grands via Zoom.  Staying safe this year we hope to be able to celebrate with our family next year. 

Stay safe! 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Far Side

Thanksgiving Report

A local church has an annual “thank meal” on Thanksgiving Day.  48 turkeys were cooked.  My parents got there before we did so they were seated with a different group, they were with friends.  It was a meal of turkey, potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans and a bunch of side salads and of course pie…I had pumpkin and Far Guy had blueberry.  The food was good, we sat with a couple from  Butler Minnesota…they drove a long way for a meal.

 

The squirrels were busy in our yard stuffing themselves.

They are fat little buggers.  We fill this feeder for them so they leave our other feeders alone.  If it gets empty they come up to the window and peer in as if to say…feed us…NOW we are starving!  We feed eight squirrels… seven are gray and one is black/brown.

Thanksgiving

We traveled up north to our oldest daughters for Thanksgiving dinner. She lives about an hour and a half from our home.

I made a pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread….some of which was gluten free. Jen made her famous dinner rolls and a gluten free apple pie.  Trica handled the rest..turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green beans, corn and a relish tray …oh and a berry pie and also a banana creme pie.

The Grands were all there at the same time for a few minutes.  Savannah had to go to work. This is their birth order and shortest to tallest photo.  It was good to have them all in the same place even for a little bit.  I got to hug them all.

Hey Mikey!

Of couse Mikey was there.  He is a happy little fella…especially after I made his Mama find his socks and add an undershirt to his attire.  He is finding his voice.  He also smiles with his eyes.  He will soon be 6 months old.  He can sit by himself for short peroids of time…he still has what I call a “round butt” …rolling off to the left or the right just like a ball.

His Mama was just outside of camera range ready to catch him if he fell over.

We had a nice get together and visit, we came home and had a nap.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I heard that 46 million turkeys would be cooked this Thanksgiving!  That is a lot of turkeys!

Today I am thankful that I don’t have to cook the turkey and I am thankful that we will be able to spend part of the day with our daughters and their families.

Thanksgiving 2016

We started out our Thanksgiving Day early with a long drive (124 miles).  It was foggy but the roads were good.

While Far Guy helped make lefsa, Adam and I played Othello and then he explained his Geometry Homework to me.  Some of it came back…slowly!   Adam doesn’t like the game Othello.  It was a “no devices” kind of day.  Adam took a nap after dinner.

The boys are all great help with preparation and clean up!  They are learning good life skills.  Noah helped me put together the fruit salad…Granny Smith Apples, Snickers Candy Bars and Cool Whip what is not to like!

A pear mulled cider punch

The tables were set for 15 guests out in the four season porch.  There were four children under the age of five.  You see those balloons at the end of the room, that was for a nerf gun turkey shoot!  There was also a pie in the face game that had children screaming with delight when the adults got cool whip on their faces.  Other guests were Andy’s parents, Andy’s sister and two children and Andy’s brother and wife and two children.

Not your traditional drumsticks…but I heard they were really yummy!

The menu: A relish tray with pickles, green and black olives, cranberry sauce, smoked turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, corn, green bean casserole, homemade buns, perogies, spaetzle, apple salad and pumpkin bread.

There was also pie, pumpkin and what looked to be apple.  We had a long drive back home and were too full for pie!

We are listening to an audio book “A Man called Ove.”  Far Guy has already finished it, and I am trying to catch up so we can discuss it!  He is patient while I listen to it in the car, he says he doesn’t mind it the second time around.

Fresh lefsa

The 15 year old cat with more than nine lives is looking old and tired.  He has a chair that he uses to get to his food dish.  I was sitting in “his” chair, he sat at my feet and meowed…so I moved out of “his” chair and let him jump up and then I sat back down again.  I took his picture and then scratched his chin for him. He was not purring very much yesterday.

Chaucer

Happy Thanksgiving!

It seems like only yesterday that we had Thanksgiving and now here we are at another one…where does time go anyway?  Time stands still for no man or woman.

This is a favorite photo of mine, I took it one very cold day with almost perfect light a few years ago.

Happy Thanksgiving, may your day be full of family, sunshine and laughter!

Wistful Wednesday:Thanksgiving 2006

When I was cleaning out and organizing some photos I found this one…it made me smile.

2006…nine years ago Thanksgiving in Elkhorn Nebraska (suburb of Omaha). Trica our oldest daughter and her husband Dick lived in Nebraska back then.

Savannah with Dakota, Paige with Daphne, Madison with Chance, Noah with Miney and Adam.  Dakota and Daphne are no longer with us.  Chance and Miney are getting older.  Well and those kids..they grew a tad.

Chance ran so hard chasing his ball on the pavement that we didn’t notice he had ripped the pads of his feet until he started limping. He spent several days on his leash laying down with goop on the pads of his feet.  Border Collies never know when to quit.

I think this was the Thanksgiving that someone did deep fried Snickers bars. A Snickers bar frozen and then covered in a batter and deep fried.  I like my Snickers bars just plain…not fried or covered in batter…but the kids thought they were great!

One time at a shopping mall parking lot someone asked Far Guy if he was the Governor of Minnesota.  Minnesota License Plates plus a bald head must equal Governor.

We really enjoyed going to Nebraska several times during the winter, it was warmer there, the grand girls were always happy to see us and there were all kinds of Train Shops and Antique Stores to visit.  We found the people in Nebraska to be very friendly folk.

Thanksgiving Dinner Report

We went to Jen and Andy’s home up north for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was –21 F or –29 C eh that morning…just a tad chilly.

I have eaten just a few dinners off this China.  It belonged to Far Guy’s Mom, when they moved into the apartment and had an auction sale I purchased a four piece place setting…later when Far Guys Mom moved from the apartment to the nursing home Jen was gifted with the rest of the set.

Andy’s brother Carl and sister in law Roberta were there with their son Arthur.

A big boy and a little boy.  Arthur would hit the chair, then Adam would do the same thing and Arthur would collapse in giggles. It must have been a boy thing.

Where did the big boy go?  Adam is in the computer room…he escaped.

We had a lovely dinner.  Smoked turkey, au gratin potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, the best homemade crescent rolls ever, corn, green beans, a cool whip green apple snickers salad, various pickles and olives, a wonderful Champagne and pumpkin or apple pie and pumpkin bread. 

Afterwards the menfolk did the dishes and we let them…we were out numbered anyway 3 to 6.

We watched a crazy movie called A Million Ways To Die In The West,  I had a nap and then we headed home before it began to snow. 

Remember to place your guess to be in the drawing for the Christmas Ornament!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A student was asked,”What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?”  He replied “I am thankful I am not a turkey.”

Just think…if Benjamin Franklin had spoken his thoughts out loud about the Turkey being a better bird for our National Symbol we could be roasting Bald Eagles.  That should be food for thought for the rest of the day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wish you all a wonderful day filled with your favorite people. 

Today I am thankful for the many blessings in my life!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Do you know where your Thanksgiving Dinner came from?

Did you have pumpkin pie? 

This is a pumpkin field in southern Indiana.  We also saw a Pumpkin Processing Farm/Plant. Indiana is second only to Illinois in pumpkin production.

Did you have cranberries?

These are cranberries bogs in Wisconsin.  They were harvested earlier in the fall.  Cranberries are the largest fruit crop in Wisconsin.

Did you have a turkey?  Minnesota is the largest turkey producer in the United States.

Sure other states grow pumpkins and cranberries and turkeys..but I like to think that I saw the farms where some of our dinner came from.

I should have taken a photo of a turkey production building..I guess I didn’t realize how important Minnesota was to everyone's Thanksgiving Dinner.

Instead I will share a greeting card with you..one of my favorite photographs of wild turkeys in a corn field..no we don’t have snow on the ground..but by the end of the day we could have a  couple of inches of new snow.

Turkey Day!

“Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.”  Author Unknown

I hope the pies turn out..but who really cares after a wonderful meal with family:)

Wistful Wednesday: The Twins

My Uncle and Aunt are twins and they were born 60 years ago this week.  I am just two months older than them.  When they were born..there were three babies in the house..my Mother was staying with her parents while my Dad was in Korea.  Can you imagine the cloth diapers the three of us went through?

This is my Aunt Karen and my Uncle Kenny.   Karen was very spoiled and often got me and Kenny into trouble.  She used to bawl even before we thought about doing bad stuff to her..she was a brat.  Kenny was a fun kid..and remains a very good friend..even though we don’t see him very often. He is one of my favorite people.

It was with these two that I spent almost every Thanksgiving Day from the time I could remember until I was married.  Grandma would spend the entire week preparing the feast and the house would be filled with Aunts and Uncles and babies..lots of babies over the years…and lots of dishes too.  The men would be in the dining room and spill over into the living room and all the women and children would be in the kitchen.  It would be a long day..I always wanted to be home by the time The Wizard of Oz came on TV..remember when it was telecast only on Thanksgiving evening..or sometimes Christmas Day in the evening?   It only came on once a year..there were no reruns.  Sometimes Kenny and Karen and I would all be sitting right in front of the TV in the living room watching the magic unfold..and then my parents would say “Come on..it is time to go home.”  So I would miss 25 minutes and I would hope all the way home that the commercials were very very long.

The Wizard of Oz, stuffing with apples and raisins, dark turkey meat and pumpkin pie with real whipped cream….just a few memories of Thanksgiving so long ago:)

Thanksgiving 2010

We are spending a quiet day at home, cooking a turkey and thinking about how we can use all the leftovers..Turkey Hotdish, Turkey and Biscuits and Gravy and Turkey Salad Sandwiches are some of our favorites.  We will make two different kinds of stuffing/dressing..one with sautéed  giblets for Far Guy and one with apples and raisins for me. I like the dark meat, Far Guy likes the white meat.

How many of you remember this Thanksgiving song by Lydia Marie Child?  Far Guy and I tried to sing it the other day, neither of us could remember all the words. We both learned it in grade school. I wonder if the music teachers use this song anymore?  It was written in 1844 as a poem. 

Over the river, and through the wood,

To Grandfather's house we go;

The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh

through the white and drifted snow.

Over the river, and through the wood—

Oh, how the wind does blow!

It stings the toes and bites the nose

As over the ground we go.

Over the river, and through the wood,

To have a first-rate play.

Hear the bells ring, "Ting-a-ling-ding",

Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!

Over the river, and through the wood

Trot fast, my dapple-gray!

Spring over the ground like a hunting-hound,

For this is Thanksgiving Day.

Over the river, and through the wood—

And straight through the barnyard gate,

We seem to go extremely slow,

It is so hard to wait!

Over the river, and through the wood—

Now Grandmother's cap I spy!

Hurrah for the fun! Is the pudding done?

Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!..Lydia Marie Child

It is a balmy –8 F  this morning.  Happy Thanksgiving! :)

Wistful Wednesday : Thanksgiving

Old photos of Thanksgiving..boy they are few and far between.  I did find a few..this is part of Far Guys family.  His Great Uncle Frank, his Grandfather Curt, his Mother and his Great Aunt Mae.   These are old Polaroids, taken no doubt by Far Guys Dad as he was a bit of a camera nut.

This is one of the table all set for their dinner..I see cranberry relish and pickled  beets and possibly pickles. Far Guys Mom has her eyes closed in this one.. but it is still a good photo..note the telephone on the wall..and the little edging on the shelves in the pantry.   Far Guys Mom has written on the back Thanksgiving 1963. :)

Thanksgiving Afternoon

We spent the afternoon with our daughter Trica and her family at her in laws home in nearby Park Rapids. Our son in law is the baby in a family of eight. Most all of them were there. It was a full house, so two more added to the mix didn't make much difference as I was reminded several times during the afternoon.

I did enjoy my time visiting with Granddaughter Madison, we talked about school and hockey. She got a chance to talk to me one on one. She is struggling with her Math, thought she knew the material, but totally blew a test. She still wants a horse, and a puppy. Both ideas I tried to gently put to rest, you live in town and horses aren't allowed and the best time to get a puppy is right after school is out for the summer. She talked all about the books she is reading. When she was barred from the adult table because she wanted to sit next to me, I just told her we would sit together on the floor by the fireplace and eat our dinner. So we did. After dinner, we played a game called Phase Ten with Granddaughter Paige and one of their other cousins, Matthew who is also 10. I tried to find the rules of the game. Those kids made up rules right and left. Funny how you can have such a good time with three nine and ten year old kids.

Madison, Gizmo and Matthew

I pods, phones and hand held games seemed to be the order of the day, as all of the children had them. Even the adults were checking their pagers and phones. The teenagers had multiple devices. No one was really communicating (as in talking to each other) ...I found it strange..I would have made a pretty little basket and checked all electronic devices at the door. That may have sparked some lively conversation:)

Yes, the Lake is totally frozen! It is one huge reflective surface.