Fabulous Thanksgiving links!

A great friend of mine sent this to me and also has it up on his blog. A SUPER EASY way to help folks get clean water and post your favourite photo while expressing what you're thankful for! Fast, totally free and an east way to help people out...GO!

Thankful Photos Support Clean Water! Via Willisays

Also two fabulous posts by a great teacher Shebang. She has a few blogs and these two posts on two different blogs are well worth the read.

The Journal of a Black Mormon Girl scroll down to the "Happy Thanksgiving!" post...really awesome.

When you're done with that, click on over to her other blog Introducing... and read her post "Much to be Thankful For". I am sure the time you spend reading her words will be well worth it.

It seems I keep reporting on things that have happened one day prior, and here I go again!

Thor and I went over to my best friends daughter's, also a good friend of ours and had such a fun time! She and her hubby had prepared all traditional Thanksgiving foods and it was fabulous. We enjoyed the company of great people and renewed friendships. After dinner we all sat around, admired the sweetest little baby girl, a true reason to be thankful, and then played "Catch Phrase".

Catch Phrase uses a small plastic box with a tiny screen that exposes a particular word. The player tries to get their team to say the word or phrase with other words, descriptions or gestures. The game is begun when the player sets a timer on the box which begins a beep...beep...beep which gradually goes faster and faster and then at last dings to indicate the time is up. The team pass the box back and forth as they guess correctly. Whichever team is holding the box when the buzzer goes off loses and the other team wins a point. There are two team buttons on the box that you press to give your points to the correct team. At the end of each round the box voices who has how many points and eventually which team wins.

The teams were pretty evenly divided, two young couples, two old ones, women against men. The constant beeping sets your brain on fire as you try to think up ways to get your team to guess correctly. Some of the hints were less than helpful, which was the most fun to watch. We were all laughing so hard by the end of the games! My best friend, as pointed our by her son, used the same words and gestures for almost any word she was given to describe. After hearing that we all just about keeled over!

So for the past two days all I have done is play games and eat. Now I am trying to catch up on LOOOONG over due projects for three friends so that I can get my Christmas up. Project one was worked on today and is almost finished, yeah! See you all tamale!

Thanksgiving III, yeah you read that right! THREE!

O.k. so today is Sunday. Yesterday was by far one of the best days I've had all year. ALL the kids were here and the two little ones, and we had a BLAST!

#2 and his wife brought over their wii, and we all got to play with that -for hours! And then #1 and his wife brought in their Guitar Hero, which again we all had to play. OH MY HECK that was fun to watch. We have an especially quiet daughter in law who spanked everyone with guitar hero...that alone was worth whatever amount of money the thing cost. Watching her just quietly playing the game and hitting the high scores was FUN! Imagine the most shy quiet person you know turning into a rock star.

The food was great. Those ribs were history in about 15 minutes. Seriously not one left. I buy the best ribs I can find, strip the funky membrane thingy from the bone side off and then cut the rack into manageable pieces. I use a dry rub and massage it in to both sides and place the rack in a ziplock to marinate over night. In the morning I line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, lay the ribs bone side down cover with more parchment, and then seal the pan with foil. Into a 225 oven for at least 6 hours, yesterday was 7, and the last half hour coat the ribs on both sides with a 50/50 blend of Mesquite Barbecue sauce and Pure honey. Back in to caramelize for 15 minutes, another swab of sauce and back in for the last 15. The ribs come completely off the bone and are so tender you can cut them with a banana. YUM.

The chicken is essentially the same routine. I buy good quality whole wings. Rinse/wash well and pat dry. No marinade. In the morning, lay the wings on a parchment covered cookie sheet. I brush the chicken with melted butter and sprinkle them liberally with garlic... no salt, nothing else, just the garlic. Cover with parchment and then seal the pan with foil. Bake at 225, for 6 hours. The last half hour coat the wings with the b-b-q sauce and caramelize for 15 minutes twice. These are great. You can also leave the sauce off and they taste great that way too.

I biffed on the pineapple upside down cake, we had so many desserts that it seemed silly to keep making more, so maybe next week.

Sunday lessons at church today were awesome. Just one point then I'll let you go. How about making a daily gratitude / blessings journal? Every night before you lay your head down take a few minutes to remember the day and acknowledge the blessings and good things that came your way during the day. When things go bad you have a reminder of just how great things have been. I have a d-i-l who did this all through her younger years. She swore by the results.

And the Thanksgiving Three? Yeah baby, a young couple, dear friends have invited Thor and I over to their home this evening to join their Thanksgiving celebration! This year rocks!

Thanksgiving Part Deux

Today all the kids are coming home to do Thanksgiving here at the house. Everyone will be here , plus the two little boys!

We're having ribs and chicken wings, both slow roasted over 8 hours. They're amazing when they finally get done! Plus a baby greens salad with feta, cranberries, and walnuts, baked beans, home made rolls, and a fresh fruit salad. We'll munch on fresh veggies and a cheese plate while we're waiting.

One of my favorite appetizers is toasted baguette slices spread with roasted garlic and topped with goat cheese and dried cherries. I can wait for those! The girls are looking forward to their brie, and the guys love just plain cream cheese with home made chili sauce and crackers or wheat thins. We're covered.

Dessert is sugar free lemon meringue , sugar free peach pie, vanilla bean ice cream, and also a pineapple upside down cake, loaded with sugar!

I rearranged the furniture for the holidays in anticipation of more bodies in the house and also trees beginning to go up on Monday. Thor put up the lights yesterday, and we are both getting excited!

So that's the post for today. Happy shopping, if you're still out there after yesterday! Whew! See ya tamale!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Normally I would never be posting on such a fun family day, but I committed to NaBloPoMo, so here I am. I'll be honest, I am actually writing this the day before and anticipate publishing it before I scoot out the door.

Every year we go to Thor's folks' home. A sunny green acre filled to the brim with 4 generations of people all having a great reunion. Nothing ever fancy, nothing ever planned (except the food...too many people to avoid that), but always a good time.

The men usually head out back and sit in lawn chairs and talk about work. The women usually chat all over the house. And the kids chase each other all over the place, in and out of the house, making their mothers crazy.

I enjoy Thanksgiving. I try to live it every day. I try to give my thanks each day with a humble heart, knowing full well that I am one of the truly blessed. I live in a free country, I practice a true religion, I am surrounded by all my family. I have love in my life. I want for nothing.

I learned long ago that everything good and ill that happens in this world will somehow benefit me in the long run. The good things are easy for us to be thankful for, but do we really graciously and deep in our hearts have true gratitude? I hope so.

Those things that aren't much fun, that make me cry or hurt inside; well, I know that if I look on them with perspective I can see the ways they have helped me be more compassionate, more giving, thoughtful and loving. Perhaps the best thing I can learn from bad things is forgiveness. I learn from those experiences, they make me a better person...I hope!

So as we go through this day of thanksgiving, perhaps we can make it a daily habit. Just living here is a gift to be appreciated daily.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.