Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving...

And all through the house...everyone was sleeping, except for Wayne's spouse.
She's been deviling eggs, preparing the yams, answering the phone and making more plans.
While preparing and chatting and checking the stove, Annie ponders her blessings and people
she loves.
There's so many of each and she smiles to herself, thinking wonderful friends are the best
kind of wealth. All of her family is safe and they're sound. She misses the ones who'll be
making other rounds.
The turkey is cooking and ready to baste, with everything else that we'll gather to taste.
With the food, the plans and the times in their places, before we know it, we'll be stuffing our faces.
By the afternoon, when we're sick of the aroma, we'll be piled up asleep in a tryptophan coma.
The year goes by, it seems in a flash and the next thing you know even Christmas will have passed.
So, tomorrow evening when Thanksgiving is through, here's hoping the holiday was perfect
for you!
Ok, ok, ok...I'm waxing poetic! Actually, it's called "entertaining myself!" Did you ever try to think of
something to rhyme with TRYPTOPHAN? HA! I never had before until tonight!
I have indeed been getting things ready for tomorrow. Kelly and I went to Food Lion and it was eerily calm.
I thought it would be a mad house, but we were in and out of there in a flash. Kelly made wonderful ham roll ups.
They were delicious. How do I know? We HAD to eat the ones that didn't look right. We cannot take imperfections
to our Thanksgiving Day table! We were laughing and wondering just how much you eat BEFORE Thanksgiving ever
happens...sampling this, just a smidge of that...I'm sure it adds up, but guess what? WHO CARES???
I had several calls from friends this evening and it was so wonderful to get caught up with a few of them. We've been out of touch for a while with a lot of our friends and it was wonderful to re-connect.
I noticed in the town of Stonewall the other morning, the SEASON'S GREETINGS decoration was going up...it goes all the way across the street! I love it. Reminds me of the excitement of seeing the Christmas lights in my town for the first time each year. And yes, I'll start running my annual Christmas DVD collection tomorrow. In fact, I started that tonight...I put in the ORIGINAL Walton's movie that the TV show spun off from. Patricia Neal, Edgar Bergen and Ellen Corbin played in "THE HOMECOMING." I remember coming home from church with my grandparent's for the Christmas program and CBS was airing it for the first time. I fell in love with it then and have kept a copy of it ever since. I've had it in VHS and DVD formats! HA! I'm a fan of that movie. I bought a copy for my brother that I've had for several months. I'll need to mail it to him so that his family can be enjoying too. We loved that movie as children. And of course, I have to play CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS until even I am sick of it!
As a child, CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG came on tv each Thanksgiving night. We all piled around the tv to watch it, but for the life of me, I can only remember Dick van Dyke being in it and there was a flying car involved. Actually, it was kind of creepy. The car also had eyes that rolled around and around! Nonetheless, we loved it!
Thanksgiving has always been a special holiday for me. I have wonderful memories of helping my mom, my grandmother and my great-grandmother cook. I remember my first turkey (and leaving the packet of "innards" inside the turkey while I baked it!) Yes! I'll admit to that! I think it's a rite of passage. I was too concerned about the little thingy popping up as it should. I never thought about checking INSIDE the bird. We never cooked the stuffing "inside" the turkey. It was prepared in a pan, so there was no red flag to warn me to make sure to get the bag OUT of the turkey!
Life is good. No matter what is going on, we are alive another year...all of us. Anymore, I think that is certainly worth celebrating. I am thankful for everyone in my life. I am thankful to be a part of such a wonderful life and I am grateful to God for the life He planned out for me.
We will be going to spend time with Frieda tomorrow. I cannot wait to see her. Things are different in that respect, as our traditions as friends won't be able to happen this year, but NEXT year, I just know things will be a lot better. We always did the "Black Friday" shopping...getting up before daylight, getting tons of coffee and going out into the mobs. The mobs are the best part. It's kind of pathetic, but also entertaining to see the lengths someone will go to for an item that is a whopping 5 bucks off if you show up at 3AM to get it! HA! Last year, Frieda was buying GPS's for the girls and she had to tangle with a man at Best Buy in Greenville or was it Circuit City...no matter...it was all chaos. They had a "pull and tug fest" over ONE GPS because Frieda was determined to get the same items for the girls! Frieda's logic was that it was easier for her to fight the man in the electronics store, rather than to give two daughters "the same thing but different!" It was hysterical to hear her tell about it. I think that man is out of the hospital SURELY by now! HA! I just know who got GPS's last Christmas. (BIG GRIN!) On Thanksgiving night, we always met up at our house to watch whatever super incredible DVD new release we'd been drooling over. One year it was the Johnny Depp version of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Another year it was "The Exorcism of Emily Rose." (SCARY! We LOVE scary around here!) The new Shrek was released, so young Nancy and I plan to go watch that with Frieda...she'll like that and my hope is that it will feel "normal" to her somehow. And of course, we have to watch "A Christmas Story" of YOU'LL PUT AN EYE OUT fame. It would be sacrilege not to do so!
You all have your own traditions to go along with your celebrations. I hope you'll really look at them, be thankful for them and honor those traditions. They are to be loved, cherished and to remind us of all the wonderful things life gives us to acknowledge and be thankful for.
On behalf of me and my family, we wish you a safe, wonderful and heart-warming Thanksgiving. As individuals, as a community and as a nation, we are ALL blessed. My hope is that this year, people will look closely and carefully at his or her own blessings. I think it will be surprising once you start to take and inventory, to see just how blessed you are.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING...and no I can't resist...BOGGLE!!! BOGGLE!!! (*see post below for the horrible joke!)
And if you go shopping on Friday, don't come home without at least one good story to tell in honor of Frieda and "The Great GPS Fiasco!"
See you again soon!
-Annie

|