Thankfulness

So much to be thankful for!

First, Katie's safe arrival home for Thanksgiving!!!  And I'm thankful that she is able to grow and learn in New York City.  And, I'm thankful her grandma is able to help us with that!

I'm thankful that Alyssa has found this program that she likes and excels at. I"m thankful that she'll be able to make a good living with a flexible schedule NEXT MAY! I'm thankful that she was able to simply turn her back on drama and realize that she doesn't have to have it in her life. I'm thankful that she has such a good heart and is such a hard worker.

I'm thankful that Michael is having a great time in Nicaragua. I'm thankful that he finished his degree and learned that he really was smart - in spite of lots of doubts he had. I'm also thankful that he's going to be able to put the Journalism degree to work by writing for the Peace Corps magazine. I'm thankful that he's on his path of figuring out how to be employed AND travel the world AND get to know and help other culture in need
I'm really thankful that we could Skype with him while everyone was here.

I'm thankful that Grandma lives close and is coping with this lack of independence she's facing. I'm thankful that she is generally cheerful even though she's incredibly forgetful. I'm thankful that her house sold quickly and she was able to get to Austin where we could take care of her.

I'm thankful that Ron was NOT as sick as that kooky doctor thought he was. I'm thankful that he did not die on that hiking trip he went on in the fall.  I'm thankful that he continues to endure his job so we can all continue to have fun.

I'm thankful that Pam and Scott were able to join us for dinner. I'm thankful that Scott found such a nice person that brings out the best in him. I'm thankful to have them in our lives.

I'm thankful that Josh got on at the fire department and starts on Monday. I'm thankful that he's open to listening to ideas and suggestions from us. I'm thankful that he's so sweet to Alyssa. I'm thankful that Josh was able to experience a real Thanksgiving Dinner with "all the fix in's"

I'm thankful for my family.

And I am thankful for my friends - some I stay in touch with often, others not as often. But I still feel so very lucky and grateful to have them in my life!

Before I wrote all my "thankfuls," I was thinking about past Thanksgivings. I may come back in if I remember more. But here are a few that stick out in my mind...

Funny memories of Thanksgivings Past...

• Laura Derrick and I, huddling in the pantry, picking weevils out of the flour so we could make gravy for the 20 unsuspecting guests in the next room

• Patty Nielsen's family and ours, having a "one course at a time" Thanksgiving on the year we had no husbands for Turkey day and 7 kids between us. We just cooked one thing, everyone sat and ate it. Kids went back to playing until the next thing we felt like cooking was done. This went on all day.

• Scott Copeland and I in the kitchen, my phone on speaker. I'm making food, he's watching his granddaughter, and my mom, her brother, and her sister are on the phone arguing with me about directions from their hotel to our house. Scott thought it would was funny enough to sell tickets.
• At the ranch, kids riding horses in laps around the house. And watching Zachary bounce so hard on  Gilly that his wallet fell out in the pasture.

• Mema deciding that we had to make Ron and Scott's favorite chocolate pie in the middle of my fixing Thanksgiving dinner for 20 with the tiniest oven. Then when the meringue didn't "set," it was all my fault for letting egg yolk get in it.

• Hannibal wearing chaps, and all of them wrestling the goats to the ground to trim hooves.

• Jennifer turning up her nose at the green bean casserole, saying it was not like her mother's. I told her she could get her mother to help her make it for next year and bring it. Her response, "yeah, if she's out of prison." That marriage ended soon afterward.

• Leslie Beam and I were cooking Thanksgiving for Walt and Betty. We were furious because we thought they jipped us out of turkey giblets. Only to find we had cooked the giblets in their little sack IN the turkey!

• Playing touch football with my cousins in Aunt Marilyn's yard. Losing a gold bracelet and in spite of hours of searching, realizing that the yard just swallowed it up

• The toilet backing up at my parents house just before everyone started arriving.  Always some major catastrophe like that at the holidays.

• The year my dad had cancer and my mom got the flu the night before we held Thanksgiving at her house. Probably 30 people. So my cousin Steve and I did the dinner together. We figured it out. I remember Natalie coming in say, "Why don't I know any of these people?" about Ron's side of the family. 

• When Kirby was suffering terribly from his diabetes, he always made jokes about it.  One year, the house was so hot inside from people and cooking, and he kept going out front to lay on the cool concrete sidewalk. Some of the kids came in to tell me what was going on.  Finally, someone told me, so I went out to get him. It must have looked strange to the neighbors. Gosh, he was a sweet cousin!

• The year we couldn't get the smoker to cook the turkey because it was too cold. We ended up bringing it into the garage and wrapping it with blankets.  It tasted good, but we ate LAAATE!

• The year we cooked on the smoker and somehow it cooked up the turkey so much it reminded us of the turkey in the movie, Christmas Vacation

• Every year that Grandma says something silly and the kids launch into lines from the same Chevy Chase movie. "Play ball!!"

Happy Thanksgiving, Ya'll!

The Thanksgiving Facts

Infographic at
http://www.creditdonkey.com/thanksgiving.html

This is a really cool graphic that I would have loved having as a poster when the kids were little. Here's the info, if you can't see it clearly. (It's clearer at their site; the embedding seems a little small for 50-year old eyes to see!!)

A Little History...

• 102 People Sailed on the Mayflower. 
• The journey took 66 Days
• The first Thanksgiving lasted for 3 days at Plymouth Colony, somewhere between September 21 and November 11, 1621
• In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November to be Thanksgiving.
• 5 deer were eaten at the First Feast
• No Turkeys were eaten; but lobster, seal and mussel was on the menu
• No Pies or cakes at the first Thanksgiving. :( 
• 1924 - First Macy's Day Parade (Snoopy has been there since the first one!)
• 1934 First Pro-Football game on Thanksgiving

And Now...

• 248 million turkeys are raised in the U.S. in 2011; 1 of 5 of these are eaten at Thanksgiving.
• Minnesota alone is expected to produce 46.5 million turkeys this year!
• 1.1 billion pounds of pumpkins were produced in 2010
• 2.4 billion pounds of sweet potatoes were produced in 2010
• 750 million pounds of cranberries are expected to be produced in 2011
• 42.2 million Americans traveled 50 miles or more for Thanksgiving last year

Thanksgiving: The Patterson Plan

I could post about so many other things! 
Like the reprehensible actions of the Davis police department on pepper-spraying college kids peacefully demonstrating. 
Or I could post about how my friend's blog was arbitrarily deleted in the middle of NaBloPoMo. (Now it's back but still it makes everyone a little nervous). 
Or I could post about how the homeschooling community often gets derailed with other issues like political candidates or abortion, or feminism. (I mean, really? Do we want to go back to PRE-feminist days??)  
Or I could post about what's it's like to be in "the sandwich" generation - caring for kids AND an elderly parent. 

But I said I'd only talk about Thanksgiving this week. So! That's what I'm going to do!

Respect the Bird!! lol

Here's our plan:

We'll be up early to start the food, per usual. Alyssa will be the only one around to help, so hopefully, she'll be eager to learn (as opposed to eager to sleep-in!)

Katie's flight comes in at 3 p.m., so Alyssa will go to get her. She and Josh will have already eaten at his family's for Round 1 of Thanksgiving. Scott and Pam will have Round 1 in Georgetown with her family.

Michael's new Nicaraguan host family has WiFi at their house! So I'm thinking he might join us for dinner over Skype. :)

This is what Round 2 looks like.  We'll be serving around 4 p.m. - as soon as Katie gets here! :))
(Well, for us, it's still Round 1, but whatever.)

On the Menu:

Appetizers:
  Brie En Croute

  Deviled Eggs

  Olives, pickles, celery with CheezWiz :-D

  Cranberry Fizz Coctail

  Hot Toddies
  Sparkling Apple Cider

The Feast!

  Turkey...cooked "in the bag"

  Spiral Ham...from HEB

  Dressing...Pepperidge Farm, not sure what I'll add to it this year.

  Dressing...Cornbread, small amount, since this is what Scott likes

  Mashed Potatoes

  Gravy

  Sweet Potatoes with marshmallows

  Cranberries

  Green Bean Casserole

  Quinoa with fruit and nuts

  Ambrosia with coconut and colored marshmallows

The Dessert

  Pumpkin Pie

  Pecan Pie

  Chocolate Pie

  Mincemeat Pie

The Great Pumpkin Cake

Yum!

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Monday's Cool Video Day - is a video card from our family to yours!

Happy Thanksgiving Week!  Love, The Pattersons!

Favorite Things

Cue the music...

Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens,
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens...


Ahhh... My Favorite Things.  So here's a list of some of my favorite things about Thanksgiving:

The old standbys...
The smell of Turkey in the oven
Crisp November air
Roasted turkey skin
Just right marshmallows on top of my famous Sweet Potato dish
The Wishbone
Dressing chock full of apples, raisins, nuts
Using leftovers for the fantastic Turkey Salad (curry, grapes, almonds, pineapple...mmmm)
Elastic Waistbands

New Thanksgiving favorites:
Pinterest - with all the great ideas
The quinoa recipe from Toci that I'm going to use this time
My new wreath
Pumpkin Spice Lattes
The look on Katie's face when she comes home and smells turkey cooking


If you come by and read this...what are some of your favorite things?

Poor Thanksgiving :(

Don't you kind of feel sad for Thanksgiving? It's a full-fledged holiday, but it's stuck in there between Halloween and Christmas.  A second thought for most people - unless you're hosting the family get together!

But the stores don't care about it at all! People don't spend tons of money on Pilgrim or Native American outfits unlike Halloween. People spend a LOT of money on costumes for their kids - and even their dog! We did!

I saw Christmas decorations already out at Garden Ridge when I was looking for Halloween decor. And last week at Hobby Lobby, when I was gathering items to make wreath for Thanksgiving, I was relegated to two very picked aisles of Fall Holiday items, while the red and green aisles of Christmas were absolutely overpowering.

I keep reading about stores that are going to be open ON Thanksgiving! Those poor workers! I remember in years past, only one store (probably WalMart) would be open for just a few hours in the morning. I knew that, because I always was forgetting some ingredient for the big meal, and I'd have to send Ron or Michael out to grab it quickly. "What? We're out of ground ginger? How can I make the famous sweet potato dish without it?"  Glancing at the clock, we'd make a mad dash to the store. We'd openly chat with the cashiers, thanking them for saving the day for us.

Now, they're probably required to be there just like any other shift!!

Maybe it's a psychological thing. Lots of people have trouble getting along with relatives, and this is just one big old glaring example that you haven't worked out those grudges yet.  Certainly that might be why they all choose to go SHOPPING for said grouchy relatives - instead of actually spending TIME with them on Thanksgiving.

The reality is that once stores got wind that we really were considering shopping for Christmas way early, they were there to appease us.  It wouldn't happen if we didn't go shopping. But we do.

We have an upscale outdoor mall, the Domain,  in Austin. Tonight they lit their chirstmas tea! BEFORE Thanksgiving? Really????

So I am going to dedicate this blog to writing about Thanksgiving for the rest of the week.

Black Friday can wait until....FRIDAY!!! No more encroaching!

Thanksgiving '07

Another big get together for Thanksgiving this year.

Grandma arrived on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. She always thinks that's going to be helpful.
Katie was having a private jazz class with Robin that afternoon. I had already begun cooking for the big event.  Everyone has a particular favorite food, so we make a lot. We can't decide between ham and turkey - so we have both. (I know! TURKEY is a requirement. But several family members aren't that crazy about it. whatever.) And some like regular pepperidge farm stuffing while others like cornbread - so, again, we have both. And all the rest....sweet potatoes (with marshmallows), mashed potatoes and gravy (thanks to Laura for fixing it), cranberries, etc. And a million pies!

Scott (Ron's brother), Kim, Jade & Hannibal came in on Wednesday. We hadn't met Jade yet - she was SOOOO cute! She's 16 months. Julie picked up Kelsey & Kent so Alyssa went over there to stay a couple of nights.


Scott takes care of Jade the most. Probably because he's a little hyperactive and needs something to do. He told me that he'd like to sell tickets to our big event. Simply because he thinks the conversations between the older relatives is hilarious. And especially when they involve me. For instance, they stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Pflugerville this year. And, of course, they got lost on their way to my house. But I was busy cooking, so I put the phone on speaker. Jade and Scott were puttering around the dining room, and could hear the whole conversation. They were arguing with me about which direction to turn. And then arguing with each other about which way they were going. It was kind of like a Billy Crystal movie. hahaha!

Uncle Jack, Aunt Marilyn, Laura Derrick and Jackson all came on Thanksgiving day. Thank HEAVENS for Laura - she rolled up her sleeves and helped a lot. She rescued my gravy!  Julie brought Jay along with the kids in time for dinner. Jay is amazed at the number of desserts we have AFTER a huge meal!  Since Jay was raised in Malasia, he doesn't have any attachment to the concept of gorging yourself with family on Thanksgiving, as an American Pastime.  Anyway, afterwards, they all disappeared to watch the Cowboy game.

I love to cook for a lot of people. What I don't love, though, is the clean up. Maybe next year I'll hand out index cards to everyone telling them what portion of the CLEAN UP they'll have to do!  That way I can relax!

The last of the company left Monday a.m.  And, Ron left for a seminar in New Orleans. The house is pretty quiet now. Time to get ready for Christmas!!!!