Tag Archives: Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

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It’s Thanksgiving! This is the first time in years I haven’t had to work. My new company is a strong believer in a balanced work and personal life. To help us all achieve that balance the offices are closed today and tomorrow.

I am thankful for an employer that recognizes and supports quality of life. 🙂 (I’m watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for the first time in years!)

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I am thankful for family and friends.

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I am thankful for my furry family, Rocky, Smokey and Buddy. They give unconditional love and make me laugh.

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I am happy for the professionals that help me keep my little world running…from my Doctor to the Vet and my Pet Sitter!

I am thankful for good health.

I am thankful for my home, humble though it may be.

I’m thankful for the job that pays the bills and gave me the means for a little celebration today, Turkey, stuffing and yams this afternoon!

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I am Happy and Thankful for so much this year. But I need to get back to the Parade. 🙂

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Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Thanksgiving Secret

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What would you say if I told you the first Thanksgiving wasn’t in Plymouth? I bet  you’d ask me how many glasses of holiday wine I’d had! But I promise you, it’s true.

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Long before the Pilgrims even set foot on Plymouth Rock the Spanish had settled parts of Florida. 55 years before the Mayflower the costal town of St. Augustine was established and the settlers came together to share a feast with the native Timucuans.

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Now you may not want to let the children read the rest of this post. Because I’m going to tell you something else about Thanksgiving.

Back up north the Pilgrims were starving, that’s true, until they learned to cultivate the rocky soil and hunt the native game. Legend says that it was the Native Americans that helped them survive and that in gratitude the Pilgrims invited the Wampanoag to celebrate the harvest.

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Once again, not quite true. The Wampanoag were actually invited to that Thanksgiving feast for the purpose of negotiating a treaty that would secure the lands of the Plymouth Plantation for the Pilgrims. It should also be noted that the INDIANS, possibly out of a sense of charity toward their hosts, ended up bringing the majority of the food for the feast.

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But even that story is disputed in some corners. Some say the Pilgrims weren’t expecting any Indians that day. If that’s true then the Wampanoag that came down the trail that morning were some of the first gate crashers!

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The history of the White Puritan Settlers and the native tribes of America  is complicated and punctuated with many wars and bloodshed. We were no kinder to the local population  in the east than we were years later when we expanded to the West.

It’s a long, sad story but if you want to know about what really happened, here is a good resource for further reading. http://www.manataka.org/page269.html

Something to think about as Thanksgiving nears.

Scared Turkey with Sign

Happy Thanksgiving

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

What are you thankful for?
I’m thankful to be alive and relatively healthy. There’s so much to see and do in this big  wide world.

I’m thankful for my furry friends…Rocky and Smokey.

They keep me company and cheer me up when I’m down. They are loyal and give me unconditional love. Sound like a dog? They are about as dog-like as  cats can be. Rocky follows me, comes when called and plays fetch.Smokey will flop over for a belly run any chance he gets and wants to be wherever I am.

I’m thankful for the family…even if we don’t see each other a lot. I know they “have my back”. And since some of them live in the country I’ll have a place to move if  the “Doomsday Preppers” are right. 🙂

I’m thankful I have a job. So many people are out of work. I joke about retiring but somehow I think I have few good years left.

I’m thankful I have a roof over my head. I’m not homeless even if I came close when the real estate market tanked. But thanks to the  new rules and mortgage modifications that resulted, I still have my home.

I’m thankful that I am still on a spiritual journey. It keeps me from becoming close minded and intolerant. There is truth in every religion as well as mystery. No one has all the answers in this life.

I’m thankful for the friends and acquaintances that I meet along my path. Some for a short time, some travel the path with me for a longer time. They are a network of friendship and support, constantly changing yet always there.

I am thankful for the beauty I see around me every day and the hobby that allows me to see it with new eyes.

I’m thankful for so much more as well but what is it that you’re thankful for?

Prepping for Thanksgiving

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My sister gave me a challenge last week. She said she wished I had a turkey for a Thanksgiving card.

Well I do have a turkey picture but I decided I wanted to be a bit more ambitious. I decided I wanted to have a picture of a Thanksgiving table all decked out with food and candles and wine glasses.

I have a table. That’s the easy part. I have wine glasses and nice china. So now I need the food. The biggest  food item is, of course , the centerpiece of the meal, the turkey.

Now since I plan to eat the props I want to be sure the turkey comes out nice and golden brown and doesn’t just look good, but also tastes good. I usually cook a mean turkey..nice and brown and very moist…perfect…except the last 2 turkey’s I cooked didn’t cook evenly. I think my old oven is nearing the end of its days.

I wanted to get the best price I could so I went to Walmart and bought a frozen turkey. Usually I buy fresh but this isn’t really Thanksgiving Dinner..it’s just a “fake” one. 🙂 So frozen will do. I had a gift card too.  Gift cards are like shopping with someone else’s money so I become more free with my $$$.

Next to the frozen turkeys was an electric Turkey roaster. If I hadn’t had the gift card I wouldn’t have even considered it but now I thought..could this solve my old oven problem?

Into the cart it went.

At home I unpacked it, wiped it down as instructed and marveled at how big this thing was.

Mr. Turkey was in the bottom of the refrigerator defrosting. 3 1/2 days later the turkey was thawed and it was time to try out this new gadget.

The turkey was a small one. 13.5 lbs. and the chart said to allow 15 minutes per pound. That works out to 3.87 hours so in goes the turkey and I settled down to wait. Smells good!

Too bad you can’t scratch and sniff.

Times up. I lifted the lid and there was a beautiful golden brown bird except it’s drumsticks were sagging away from the body and when I lifted the bird the wings fell off!

Boy this turkey is definitely cooked! As I transferred the main body to the serving platter the whole thing collapsed. If anything this turkey is overcooked. It certainly isn’t ready to be a centerpiece of a holiday table picture. But is it edible?

I whipped out a knife and sliced a tiny piece just to see…ohhhh soooo good. It was moist inspite of being over cooked…and tender. The bottom of the roaster was filled with drippings. Lots of gravy to be made there.

So looks like I will have to try again to get that centerpiece Turkey for the picture . I might not get to it in time for this year’s Thanksgiving. After all, how much turkey can one person and 2 cats eat? At least there’s always next year.

For now I’m enjoying my early Thanksgiving feast with a squashed but tasty turkey centerpiece.

You can order greeting cards at www.dustyroadsphotos.etsy.com and www.dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com.