WISHING EVERYONE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!

On this Thanksgiving Eve, Don and I want to wish all of our blog followers a Blessed Thanksgiving.  We are spending today remembering the Thanksgivings from our past.  Cruising thru Google images we found some pics that reminded us of those days long gone.

The Norman Rockwell image was closest to my past.  Thanksgiving was usually at my Grandparents Nelson. There would be as many as could be squeezed around their dining room table. Although they never put the 'uncut' turkey on the table, it would be a hugh one (20+ pounds) sliced on platters (one for dark meat and one for white meat, [I am a dark meat person]). There would be cranberry sauce and a cranberry congealed salad (both homemade and oh so gooood!!). Sweet potato casserole with marshmallows on top,cornbread dressing,  greenbeans out of one of our gardens, sliced tomatoes,giblet gravy, hot rolls with real butter, ice tea, and for desert would be Aunt Mary's chess pies, Grandmother's pound cake, Mama's chocolate cake, and chocolate covered mints. 

Now tomorrow Don and I will have turkey (20+pounds) (I don't know how to cook any other size), turnip greens, canned cranberry sauce, dressing (Pepperridge Farms Herb dressing mix), cornbread muffins, mashed white potatoes ( I never had these for Thanksgiving or Christmas until I married Don and he never had one without it!!), giblet gravy, coffee or lemonade. Pumpkin pie for desert. Following in the American tradition I will spend the morning in the kitchen (starting around 6am) and we will eat around 2pm. The first Thanksgiving I fixed it took Don only 17 minutes to eat dinner.  8 hours work for me and 17 minutes for him to eat.  That's about right for us. HoHum.
I hope all of you are with your families and do take your time eating dinner even if it is only tacos or hamburgers.

I added Charlie Brown and Snoopy because I always watched their Holiday specials. And I am adding this next pic just because it is pretty.

I am linking this post to Vintage Thingie Thursday
http://coloradolady.blogspot.com/2011/11/vintage-thingie-thursday-vintage-recipe.html
and here is my thingie.  This little turkey dates back to the 1980's and I bought it go in a flower arrangement for Thanksgiving. Been using it every year (not always in a flower arrangement). To be mostly styrofoam he has held up pretty good over the years.

Enjoy the meal and remember to give thanks for all our blessing. We are looking forward to some peace and quiet.
Don and Mary

YELLOW CANARIES ~ FREE IMAGES ~ A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE

You know it is really strange the things that will trigger a walk down memory lane.  I was visiting some of the free image sites I have collected looking for some interesting Christmas vintage images and happened across this image on BUMBLE BUTTON (she has beautiful vintage images that are free, a lot I have never seen anywhere else).  http://bumblebutton.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-10-10T19:02:00-07:00&max-results=7 

Now, everyone is crazy about birds and birdcages, and I am one of the devotee's of that passion.  But this particular pic brought back some memories that have not been dusted off in a long time.  My Grandmother Nelson had a yellow canary when I was a young (6-10 yr old). The cage hung in the kitchen on the wall opposite the windows. I can remember it was round and kinda fancy like this one. Grandmother had made a little cover that was gathered and could be pulled around the cage.  The canary was female and named Bobbie.  She could sing so pretty, but sometimes Grandmother got tired of her singing and would cover it up so she would stop singing. 
 I had to call my Aunt Mary (at the nursing home) to find out what the bird's name was and I also found out that 'Bobbie' was Aunt Mary's bird orginally, and my Grandfather Nelson (Aunt Mary's and my mother's father) thought she (the bird) was so great that he talked Aunt Mary out of the bird and that he was the one that actually took care of her. Aunt Mary couldn't remember how long they had Bobbie.  I don't either, but I do remember that when Bobbie died, we (the grandchildren) had a funeral for her in the backyard at my grandparent's house. Near Grandfather's prize winning dahlia's.
That was something else we did as children.  We thought enough and cared enough for our pets that we took very good care of all of them when they were alive and when they died (be it dogs, cats, turtles or birds or goldfish) they were all given a respectful funeral in the back yard.  So many people today throw away animals (and children) and have no feeling for anything. Alive or dead. I am glad I grew up 'in the old days' when a few people still cared for others (animal or human). 
The funny thing is thinking about the canary and the cage got me to thinking about the Thanksgiving dinners we had at my grandparents house.  I guess the tie in is that usually after dinner we kids would play under the kitchen table and could hear the bird singing.  Funny how memories are.
I hope each of you are having a great week.
May God bless each of you.
Mary

THE DAY AFTER

Now is the day after.  The turkey (breast) was cooked, cut up and eaten. I started cooking at 10 AM and called Don to dinner at 3PM.  For all that cooking time, it took us 17 minutes to eat dinner. Next time TV dinners !!!  The meal was really good (even if I did cook it). Don liked it. It got his "Heinz 57 " approval. I was so tired I couldn't move. I baked a pie (pumpkin of course), made mashed potatoes, cooked peas (NOT canned), gravy, a olives and pickle tray, and a turkey breast. Doesn't sound like much, but I sure was tired.  So now we start the race to Christmas.  Forget Black Friday. I DO NOT leave the house the day after Thanksgiving.  I worked 5 years at our local Wally World, answering the phone.  I would not go near any store, but especially WM the day after Thanksgiving. People are crazy.  I can tell you that the prices ARE NOT WORTH THE TRIP.  I saw people steal other peoples carts, take stuff out of other peoples carts. It was unbelievable. I really don't think you could pay me to go near the places. So to all you folks that got up at midnite to go shopping. TAKE A NAP!!! and repeat after me "I will NOT do this next year !!" Amen
God Bless you (and your sore feet)
Mary

THANKSGIVING WEEK

It is now the week of Thanksgiving. I am trying to get more crafted items ready to post on ETSY. Trying to get some cleaning up done.  Do some cooking mainly pumpkin pies and oatmeal cookies.  I would rather have homemade cookies than any other kind of desert.  When I can I like to add things such as raisins and dried cranberries.   Since I discovered dried cranberries I am hooked.  I hope the oranges we ordered from the FFA kids comes in this week.  I would love to make the cranberry orange relish my grandmother used to make.  It was soooo goooood.  I will try to post the recipe some time this week. 
The weather is almost hot again.  There is no need for jackets in the daytime.  We have a chance for showers Tuesday and then rain and storms Wednesday and Thursday.  Good ol' November weather.  It really hasn't been too bad this year. Somehow I still keep waiting for the other weather-shoe to fall.  We have not had our regular stormy weather like usual.

On the craft front I have put together some lavender sachet with hopes of doing special orders for wedding, Christmas favors, showers and such. As usual I can't just put lavender in the bags, I decided to change the ribbons and of course I had to make them longer to tie pretty bows.

I am also working on more strawberry pincushions and sachets. It has really been a job to get to where I can start decorating them, but now the assembly line is chugging along.  More to come.
Have a nice night and God Bless you.
Mary