Month: November 2008

Thanksgiving

It’s lovely having a day set aside to be thankful. I try to be thankful every day, but for the days when I’m too busy or too frazzled or too sleepy or too sick, having a day like Thanksgiving helps to make up for those days.

Amy decided that she’d make a Thanksgiving Dinner for us this year once the folks and I invited ourselves around. (Well, we couldn’t resist the reasonable flight prices to Minneapolis, so we asked if they’d be willing to host us – they were!) So last night, mom baked a pumpkin pie and an apple pie (I peeled the apples). I made my “famous” Thanksgiving cheeseball. Amy prepped things for today.

This morning, Amy roasted a Heritage chicken, roasted chopped root vegetables (potatoes (Yukon, purple & red), sweet potatoes, yams (we learned this year there *is* a difference between sweet potatoes & yams), carrots, beets, onion, garlic, etc), cranberry & mushroom dressing, kale, green beans, and gravy (with Hefeweizen beer). Rachel baked some lovely (and sweet) corn bread. And dad carved the chicken.

Things were ready at 2:30pm and we ate a wonderful meal. And then ate a bit more. We still haven’t had dessert but will probably do that (and play games) after nap time. Which is what is going on now.

I’m grateful that my sister & Rachel have a lovely house which they can host us for dinner. I love that my family gets along very well and is fairly low key. I miss my kitties and hope they are having a nice Thanksgiving day. Hope you all (folks in friend’s list land) are having a nice time and that you have a lovely weekend.

Family Holiday

Well, I’m in Minneapolis in Amy & Rachel’s den (it’s changed around a little since I was here last month). Mom’s reading. Dad & Amy are ready to go off grocery shopping & stuff. Poor Rachel’s at work (at the co-op we’ll be grocery shopping in). Just thought I’d type up a short “Here I Am!” post before we all head off to be productive. I’ll get more details of our family gathering for the holiday when we’ve done more family gathering for the holiday. Heh.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Enablers suck…

So, like, I have a DVD buying problem. I buy too many DVDs. (Though I do love watching them and I don’t watch much regular TV, so that’s something at least.) But periodically DeepDiscount enables my DVD buying addiction. About twice a year or so they have a 20% off sale. And I buy far too much stuff.

Well, they’ve topped themselves this time. Their Winter Sale is 25% off! So I bought the boxed set I’ve been eying for awhile (The Michael Palin Collection – the only travelogue he’s done that I own on DVD is Sahara, but I’d love to get ’em all. Now I will!) And I waited a little bit since Season 4 of Doctor Who came out today (pre-orders don’t get sale prices) so I ordered it as well. Yay me! Boo DeepDiscount for enabling me!

BTW, the sale ends November 23rd, so get your orders in soon! They have several coupon codes you can use (but you only get the 25% off once, even if you try using a different code later) including the following: SALE, DEEP, PRICESEARCH. DeepDiscount often has the cheapest prices for DVDs (though I often start at DVDPriceSearch first). Oh, and they always have free shipping. Hope you find a DVD or seven that you want there!

Thank you, Veterans!

Schools which remain open on Veteran’s Day (like ours) must have an assembly to honor the day and our veterans. So today our Student Council and the junior high and high school bands put on a very nice assembly. Our superintendent invited veterans from the district to join us for the ceremony and we had a nice group of them to honor. The local VFW also sent along their color guard to bring the flag in. We also had a WWII veteran speak to us about some of his experiences fighting in Patton’s Army. The entire student body (1st through 12th grade) was present and they were very respectful to the veterans present and to the ceremony overall.

I wish we never had to send people off to war. It would be nice if the only thing our armed forces had to do was help with relief and aid and helping little old ladies across the street. But young men and women everywhere are sent off to fight and kill and be killed. It’s not something that I could ever do, so I am grateful for the people who have fought to keep us free and to free others. Perhaps one day we’ll no longer need to send young folks off to war. That will be a wonderful time, indeed.

I Voted!

Normally voting in my town is a quick thing – 5-10 min wait. Today, however, we had quite a few folks in voting at 7am. I got into the church at 7am and left at 7:48am. Classes start at 7:50am. Thankfully it was only a 3 minute walk from the church to the school and I got the kids into the classroom before the pledge of allegiance began. To get through faster, I went with a paper ballot and since I knew exactly who & what I was voting for, I was done quickly and able to get my pencil off to someone else. (They needed more pencils – hope they got some!)

Tomorrow will be interesting. I’m hoping that tomorrow my school will still be solvent, my president-elect will be black, and gay marriage in California will still be legal. *crosses fingers*