thanksgiving day
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving to all my firefly and online friends...
Like most of you, I have been busy cooking for the last few days, and haven't gotten a whole lot else done. But today is the payoff. My hubby and son and I are off to my brother's house, where most of the family will be gathering for fun, laughter, and good times. We haven't all been together for Thanksgiving in years. Sadly, my sister and her family aren't here, but we're seeing them in February at the big family reunion. So it's all good.
No Africa pics, sad to say; I didn't get it done in time. You guys have seen more of my trip than my family! Anyway, I'll be back online tomorrow with a new blog with lots to report. Maybe I'll even wrangle a family photo today. I'd love to see yours, too!
Leen is right that I forgot to nail down the details on the contest. (Do you still doubt that I got lucky with my photos??? I'm an organizational nightmare).
Anyway, can't wait to talk to all again, but until then, may you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I'm grateful for my family, my friends, and the joy I can find in everyday life. I'm grateful for all of my readers...you really enrich my life. And one of the things that Africa reminded me of--I'm grateful to live in this great country of ours, even in difficult times. We are so, so lucky, and I don't ever want to take that for granted. How about you? I'd love to hear what you're all thankful for this year...
Aloha,
Kristin
ps: for those of you who were wondering--the photo was taken from the balcony of our room in Zanzibar...
pss: I was fortunate enough to read Susan Elizabeth Phillips' new book, "What I did for Love," and it was an absolute joy. A fun, sexy romance with great characters and a cool hollywood setting. Honestly, I had to force myself to put it down so that I could get a little work done. SEP fans can start the countdown...
29 Comments:
Happy Thanksgiving!
I'm thankful for so many things every year.
The list in no particular order:
The babies (not really babies, not mine either but will always eternally be MY babies -D ): 2 nieces and 2 nephews whom I spoil to the moon and back. What else are aunts for? I'm the aunt that ALL mothers wished their kids had! Hahhaa
The most wonderful BF -soon to be husband ifheevergetshisa$$ingearandifweeverhavemoney: he's the best man I've ever met. He's not perfect but he's perfect for me and we are perfect for each other. We've finished each other's sentences from the beginning, he knows what I want w/o me saying it, we're closer than any married couple. All we're missing is the ceremony and that darn piece of paper. =P We truly never fight...it befuddles me when couples one day are he's the best ever...then the next day you can curse your SO to death.
My family: Whom have taken a lot of crap from me -I feel- even though it's not anywhere in the ballpark of other teenagers. Whom now that I'm a *adult* truly appreciate for their greatness.
The mutt: our wonderful beautiful dog who chosed US that one fateful day at the SPCA.
My job: I think I'm one of the fortunate few who truly LOVE my job. It's my dream job, it's my college education, not many can say that!
Ok. Way more than you wanted, but there you go!
PS. I'm really not that happy go lucky, on the contrary quite cynical. But just appreciate. Know what I mean?
Hmmmmm, what do I like better? The gorgeous sunset or the yummy looking drink? It's a toss up. LOL LOL
As to the contest: for all those who are entering (and I hope it is all of you fireflies!!) please send your entries to Kristin through the contact page and put something like "Contest" in the header. If you have any other questions, let us know.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. What I'm thankful for? I SURVIVED. ha ha ha Oh, and all the dishes are done.
Kim
Dear Wendy--
I love your comments! Boy do I know the long road that one embarks upon when raising teenagers. Now, amazingly, my son is almost twenty one, and all that angst is coming to a much needed end. (She says hopefully). All I know is that every moment--even when I was losing my hair and gaining weight and unable to sleep for worrying--was totally worth it. Hands down, I'm grateful for my wonderful son and that I survived raising him...so far. :)
Also, fireflies, I want you all to know that Kim is giving me a ration of you know what about my Thanksgiving menu. Do I really not have enough food? Have I been sending people home hungry for years???? What does everyone serve? I say we come up with a fireflies holiday menu resource guide. Kim: how would we do that? How can we collect recipes on the website for all of us to share?
aloha,
Kristin
ps: the sunset was great; the drink was FABULOUS. :)
Also, to all the fireflies--
The details of the contest will be nailed down by Tuesday. I promise. I have an appointment to talk to my webmaster and hopefully we'll put a link on the main page to make entering easy. I don't want you all to have to work to hard. :)
aloha,
K
We had a great Thanksgiving. We hosted, but had the inlaws bring most of the food. :) We ate too much and most of it was horribly full of fat and cream, but it was all delicious. I will say that I made champagne cocktails - 1 part cranberry juice and 3 parts champagne. You're supposed to top with cranberries and mint, but I didn't do that.
I'm so jealous that you got to read Susan Elizabeth Phillips's book. The cover alone is so pretty. I'm hoping she'll sign again by me. It was nice going two years ago. Luckily, Glitter Baby comes out next month to help the long wait (until February) for WID4L!
Let's see. I'm not the most organized, but I'm on top of my game this year. My Christmas cards have been sent (all 104), most of my presents have been purchased (just have the inlaws and the husband's godson left), and my part of the decorating is done. The husband does the lights and garland on the tree so I can't do the rest of the decorating until he puts his butt in gear.
Hope everyone else had a great holiday!
April...you are one of those. The ones who put the rest to shame. =(
My excuse is that my niece and nephew #1 & 2's birthdays are all one week apart, lying consecutively a month before Christmas. So I have to take care of birthdays before I can do christmas! Did I mention that you throw in there also my mom's birthday, my brother #2 and our anniversary??? 'Nuff said!
And...one hundered & four cards? *gulp* The first year we did holiday cards I sent it to everyone and I mean everyone and that was ~50. My arms and hands hurt!! I can not imagine 104.
Every year I get our holiday cards from the Make A Wish Foundation. They're a bit pricier but I look at it as one of my holiday giving items because the proceeds go to such a good cause. And they are so cute, all the covers are artwork by Wish Kids and on the back of the card is a little snippet about the Wish Kid Artist. This year I went with the personalized version where the holiday message is one I came up with myself! Okay fine....I googled and stole bits and pieces from here and there and made it my own. =P
I did cut some from my list, but we're doing a card exchange with the Susan Elizabeth Phillips Bulletin Board so that brought my number up again. I have tiers of cards - photo cards, cards with photos and just plain cards. I'm usually within the first week of December. This year is even a little nutty even for me. Some are UNICEF cards which make me feel like my cards do some good.
Since October, we had our anniversary, the baby's first birthday, the first Halloween with trick or treating, my sister-in-law's birthday, my nephew's Gotcha Day (the day he was adopted), hosted Thanksgiving and my sister's birthday. Last year, though, I wrote my cards in September because I wasn't sure how crazy we would be with a newborn. I think the more busy I am, the more organized I am. I'm weird like that.
Oh, Kim, I think the RSS feed is disabled on this blog which is why I can't link this to my blog or link it as a Blog that I'm Following. I know that's what came up today when I tried to link it.
April,
That "Gotcha Day" is so cute! What a nice idea. You do sound very organized; that's wonderful. I have learned many great tips from Flylady..www.flylady.net. Lots of people like to complain about her tactics and ideas, but hey, if one gives her ideas a shot, they just might work. She has upwards of 500 thousand members now. I knew her back when there were less than 400 and it was an email list.
I have my cards but they're not filled out yet ;-)
April, you have put the rest of us to shame. Cards, shopping AND decorations?! Ye gads, girl, I'm jealous. And I'm with Lynn, the Gotcha Day is such a wonderful, creative idea.
Wendy, you have been one busy gal! Love how you get your cards from the Make a Wish foundation.
Lynn--a fellow Flylady gal!! Like you, I was one of the original group. (Seems like a million years ago). Flylady has so many great suggestions. Have you ever read any of the SHE books (Stay Home Executive)? They're similar to Flylady.
Kim
PS Just to clear the record--wasn't giving Kristin a ration of you know what about her T-day menu. :) My comment was, no wonder she stays so skinny. In my family, it's food, food, food on the holidays. LOL LOL But I can tell everyone from experience, Kristin is an AMAZING cook.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!! and welcome home Kristin. Africa seems like it was an amazing place. I love your pictures. You may be a novice but you have an amazing eye. I spent my Thansgiving morning in the hospital with my daughter awaiting the birth of my new granddaughter. Little Ms. Zoe (Chloe's little sister) was born at 2:20 a.m Thanksgiving morning weighing in at 7lbs and 20.5 inches long. Not only am I thankful but I am also grateful that God has allowed me the fortune of having two wonderful grandchildren. We have a lot of Thanksgiving traditions in my family but I am looking forward to created new ones with my grandchildren.
Kim,
I am such a Flylady fan. Years ago when my boys were very little, I found it so hard to keep up with everything. Once I found Flylady, it all just clicked. After just 2 days ofimplementing her suggestions, my husband came home one day and said, "The house looks *beautiful*!" The original SHEs, Pam and Peggy are a riot!
I love to cook, so I'd be very interested in contributing to and collecting any recipes the Fireflies may put together.
Hey Kim...does that make us Fireflygals? lol
Hi everyone !!! I feel like I've been away from this blog for one hundred days. What a long (but wonderful) week. Thanksgiving was wonderful, we ate way too much! We had fried turkey, a baked turkey, and a ham. We had "traditional" stuffing, cornbread dressing (the best), gravy, candied yams, sweet potato pecan casserole, macaroni & cheese, mashed potatoes, corn pudding, green peas, green bean bundles, fruit salad, rolls, pecan pie, and pumpkin pie. I'm embarassed at the amount of food we had for 12 people. Even more so now that the leftovers are about gone. On a brighter side, I worked some of it off by getting all of the CMAS decorations up. WooHoo!
Our HS football team is two games away from a TX State Championship, so after sitting outside in very cold wind Saturday night, screaming for the guys, I woke up sick yesterday. Still can't shake it. I feel awful. No time to miss work though - it's crazy busy. And, most importantly, this Saturday is an annual holiday party that I am chairperson of, for the past decade. Our company sponsors a party for kids K-2nd grade from a school in Dallas where enrollment is 100% homeless children, or children in shelters. It's an AWESOME experience, but keeps me quite overwhelmed from about August until the first Saturday in December.
So, it's a busy week for me, but not too busy to forget my contest entry. I wondered if Cindy W and I would be eligible for the contest, since we got the unedited version before. Then I thought, what the heck, I'm a firefly, and I love to tell a good story, so I'm in! =)
OK, I'm caught up for now. Until next time ....
Lisa
Kristin -
Almost forgot, per your question on previous blog:
Dad - Robert Duvall
Winona - Kathy Najimy
Aurora - Ashley Judd
Vivi Ann - Elizabeth Shue
"Stranger in town" - Benjamin Bratt
Luke - Harry Connick Jr.
OK, that's my two cents on a casting call! =)
Wow, chloesnana, congratulations! A baby on Thanksgiving is definitely something for which to be thankful. That's a nice sized baby, too.
My nephew arrived a little before Thanksgiving as a 6 month old. He was the same weight as the turkey so there's a cute photo of him in a turkey outfit sitting next to the dinner. Poor thing probably thought we were crazy! Eh, he probably still does.
OK. Take three on trying to get my comment posted.
I'm very thankful this year for so many things... my brand new niece(ten months old!) who I'm sure will make it into an essay of mine.
Thankful for wonderful friends, second chances at love, third chances at love ;) Authors who rock and you swear you know them personally. Authors' assistants who also rock.
And thankful most of all that God brought me through a monster of a summer, starting with a broken wrist, and ending with my close uncle in the hospital with heart troubles. He was able to celebrate Thanksgiving with us, and that's the best of all! (Considering how differently it could have ended, of course!)
While he was in the hospital, I was able to take care of his little zoo, as I was out of work. Little zoo= four turtles, a rabbit, two cats, a lizard, and fish. The uncle likes his reptiles.
Also thankful for new firefly friends :)
Hi Kristin.
Just finished Angel Falls,What a lovely.touching story--the only book of yours I have not read.I forgot to tell you that you are the most popular author in my condo complex,but I have bragging rights,and no my sisters do not drive me nuts.
Big Hugs
Sharon
Wow! I feel like I haven't checked in forever! Love that picture of the lion Kristin. Looks so terrifying to me! LOVE animals, but he scares me a little!
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Mine was a blast as usual. See, we celebrate Thanksgiving at the dunes in Yuma. There's about 15 families in a big prairie circle. Some friends, some family. And it is beyond the best food you've ever had. We (meaning our friends) put the turkey in the sand (in a pit) the day before and it cooks all night! And then (another friend) makes the amazing noodles, homemade! Doughy noodles in the gravy that you then put on mashed potatoes! Is it any wonder I need to loose about 50 lbs!! Anyway, my kids and hubby have fun riding their quads and dirt bikes while I sit in my trailer with my sisters and play cards. Ahhhhhhh! Heaven! :)
I gave my sister YOUR book (Firefly Lane). She NEVER reads, don't know how were related. :) But she finished it and LOVED it Kristin! She was bawling and got mad at me a little bit. But she absolutely in love with it as was I. Ok. Enough of rambling! Can't wait for True Colors!!!!!! Hurry February!
Andi
Lisa - with a cast like that, I'm ready for the movie!! Elizabeth Shue?! Now THAT'S a name I haven't heard in a long time!!
Dear April--
Well, first and foremost, the champagne/cranberry concotion sounds absolutely heavenly. I think I'll need to flat out steal the idea from you and serve to my guests next year. I'll tell them all to thank you!
And now, let me just say that you make me feel terrible about myself. How on earth have you gotten so much done and with a baby at home??? You are absolutely amazing. That is definitely the way to keep stress out of the holidays--be prepared. Unfortunately, just the planning stressed me out, let alone the execution. :) But I know I speak for all the fireflies when I say You go, girl! We're proud of you. :)
And I don't mean to rub it in, but you ARE going to love SEP's book...
aloha,
K
Dear Wendy--
Jeez, you make me tired just reading all that you have to do. Sounds like the usual mommy holiday track, doesn't it? Everyone loves the holidays, but it sure seems like we end up doing all the work behind the scenes. The truth is, though, that I really do love all of it when it's over. that's what I keep telling myself when my headache amps up and the To Do list spirals out of control...
I LOVE the Make a Wish holiday card connection!!! I have a very close friend whose child was once a recipient of a make a wish fantasy day and I can't tell you what a Wonderful, Fabulous, Meaningful organization that is. You're making a difference just by buying cards. How cool is that!
Aloha,
K
Okay, April--
I'll bite. What's a RSS feed, why isn't it working and what are you trying to do? :_) Man, I'm a computer zero. But if I can understand the problem, I'll pass it along to the webmaster.
thanks--
K
ps: how do you do a card exchange on SEP's board?
Dear Kim and Lynn--
What in the world is Flylady.com? And how come Kim knows about a cool site and I don't???
And don't you all believe Kim. She DID give me you know what about my menu. So now I'm totally paranoid. Next year I'm cooking DOZENS of side dishes. So let's all share our favorite recipes...
LOL
Happy holidays,
k
Dear Lisa--
Okay, I now officially want to come to your house for Thanksgiving. What an amazing menu, and I have to say, it's kind of like Kim's. I definitely want the sweet potato pecan recipe. Doesn't that sound delicious, everyone?
Also, I just have to say, it is so cool to hear about the wonderful things the fireflies are doing out there in the world. We're all crazy busy with work and family, but so many of you find ways to help people in your communities. Like your help with the kids, Lisa. Really, it's inspiring.
I've got some news on the contest, but since it's big news, I'm going to focus the next blog entry on it.
Happy holidays--
K
Dear Chloesnana-
Congratulations!! A grandbaby has to be about the best holiday gift ever. How lucky--
happy holidays,
k
Dear Michelle--
Thanks for reminding us all that this a month for remembering the wonderful things we're thankful for. Your list actually made me smile. We're all lucky to have found new friends on this board, aren't we.
And congrats on making it through such a difficult time. It really sounds as though you have a lot to be truly thankful for this month.
And we're all thankful that you're a firefly--
Happy holidays,
K
Dear Michelle--
Thanks for reminding us all that this a month for remembering the wonderful things we're thankful for. Your list actually made me smile. We're all lucky to have found new friends on this board, aren't we.
And congrats on making it through such a difficult time. It really sounds as though you have a lot to be truly thankful for this month.
And we're all thankful that you're a firefly--
Happy holidays,
K
Dear Andi--
Okay, girlfriend, you win the award for the most amazing and different Thanksgiving. Hands down! The noodles, mashed potatoes and gravy sounds fantastic. I mean, those are three of everyone's favorite foods put together!
I'm glad to hear your sis liked Firefly. Thanks so much for passing it around.
Happy holidays,
k
Dear Sharon--
thanks for the good word about Angel Falls! Are you ready for the holidays?
aloha,
K
I don't actually know what the RSS Feed is, but I know that's what it tells me is disabled and everyone else's works. Yours works as a link, but it doesn't update or tell me when there's updates so I just have to check back on my own.
We did a card exchange off-line. Someone organzied it. We had a group who wanted to do e-mail cards and a bunch of us who wanted to do real cards. So, we compiled addresses and agreed to send them out.
Thanks for rubbing it in! Now I can't wait to read the book. Eh, I couldn't wait before. :) It seems like ages ago since Natural Born Charmer came out. Readers are so demanding.
~ april
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