Happy Thanksgiving!

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updated November 25, 2021

This post was originally posted last Thanksgiving! I somehow ran out of thyme this week and didn’t get a new one written!

The thing I am most thankful for this year is that my husband has conquered a health challenge he has been dealing with. He underwent proton therapy and had very few side effects. I am very grateful for that blessing.

I also completed the sale of my family homestead earlier this year. I can’t really express how I feel about that but I am grateful that the move is completed and I don’t have to worry about taking care of an out of state property.

I am thankful for all the new people that I have met this past year along my blogging journey.

and I am very thankful that my cousin survived a long hospital/rehab stay and is now back home in Decatur, Il.

I hope everyone has a very blessed Thanksgiving!

Even in the midst of all the challenges 2020 has brought, there is still plenty to be thankful for!

Happy Thanksgiving! 2020 has brought many changes into most everyone’s lives. Many of us will be celebrating Thanksgiving very differently this year. Regardless of how we will be celebrating, I keep reminding myself there is always something to be thankful for. I also tell myself that while 2020 has taken away a lot of things this year, it can’t take our memories away from us.

First a confession: I did not carve the Thanksgiving Message in the watermelon or put the lovely Thanksgiving display pictured above together! That was prepared by the staff aboard the Norwegian Jade last year. My husband & I were disembarking from a cruise on Thanksgiving Day 2019. More about that a little later!

Family Milestones in 2020 to Be Thankful For

Milestone is probably not the correct word for our first special family celebration. My oldest bonus son & his girlfriend were married on St Patrick’s day 2020 in Las Vegas. The pandemic messed with their plans but they managed to power thru the challenges and had a lovely wedding day. Dave & I were able to join them. It was a whirlwind trip and a bit eerie to be leaving Las Vegas as the city was shutting down due to the virus. Several family members were unable to attend but they were there in spirit.

Great Aunt Pauline Celebrates 102 !

In full disclosure, the picture above is from her 100th birthday. Due to the virus , we had to have a remote celebration this spring when she turned 102! Of course, I can’t find those pictures this morning! More about Aunt Pauline can be found here:

My Great Aunt Pauline is my maternal grandfather’s youngest sister. She and my Mom were extremely close. The house my husband & I purchased in Florida was originally her home. She is an amazing lady! The past several months of the restrictions imposed at the Assisted Living she lives in have been difficult for all of us . We will miss seeing her today but we are so thankful to have her in our lives!

Aunt Pauline is now 103 3/4! She will be joining us at her son’s house for Thanksgiving dinner later today! She is simply Amazing!

A Few Thanksgiving Memories

As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, my husband & I were disembarking from a cruise last Thanksgiving. We were able to go on a trip of a lifetime last fall. The trip started in Venice , Italy and ended in Dubai, UAE 33 days later! It was an amazing journey! I am so thankful that we were able to take the trip!

A few days before the end of the trip, we were in Jordan. We visited Petra and Wadi Rum. Petra is where the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed. Wadi Rum is known for its red/pink sand, stunning landscapes and prehistoric rock carvings. We visited a Bedouin camp there. It was an incredible day!

For Thanksgiving Dinner 2019, we were at one of the malls in Dubai eating at a BBQ place! I wish we could have spent more time in Dubai! One day wasn’t enough! I like to say Dubai is like someone mixed up Miami , Las Vegas, New York City and Rodeo Drive in a blender and made Dubai!

Thanksgiving 2012

While I don’t have any pictures of this Thanksgiving Celebration, it was unique in that we basically took over my friend Bridget’s restaurant and held our Thanksgiving dinner there. Earlier that fall, my Mom had somehow fractured her knee and by Thanksgiving was midway thru her rehab stay at a local nursing home. While the house she and my Dad lived in was handicap accessible, I knew if I took her home for the day and had Thanksgiving there , I would never get her back to the nursing home! Bridget was like a daughter to my parents so she graciously offered her restaurant as a place we could hold our celebration.

My Aunt and cousins from Indiana as well as Dave’s oldest son and his family joined us at the restaurant. We brought in the Thanksgiving feast and spent the afternoon eating and enjoying the family time! Mom still wasn’t thrilled about going back to the nursing home that day but she was grateful to be able to join us for the afternoon!

Thanksgiving at the farm

I am not sure the exact date of this Thanksgiving. It was sometime in the late 1990s as we were still living in Urbana, IL and my parents were still living in the farmhouse. My Mom and I decided to purchase one of the prepared packaged Thanksgiving dinners from one of the area grocery stores. All we had to do, they said, was cook the turkey for x amount of time, heat the sides up and we would be ready to eat! Sounded simple enough! Mom and I followed the directions regarding the turkey and when it came out of the oven…… it was still stone cold and raw inside!

My Mom was not happy! We had guests and no turkey to feed them! Somehow we had been given a box that included a turkey that had not been thawed out at the store as it should have been. Unbeknownst to us, ours was still frozen in the center when we put it in the oven. We never tried the prepacked Box o’ Thanksgiving dinner again!

In hindsight, we should not have assumed that the turkey would be oven ready. Even though it was advertised as such!

Thanksgiving In Rochester, NY

Several years when I lived in Cincinnati, my parents and I would travel to Rochester, NY to have Thanksgiving with a close family friend and her parents and husband. One of the memories surrounds the appropriate size turkey to purchase when you are having twelve people for Thanksgiving. I will admit, I probably would have bought the same size turkey that my friend, Angie did. However, our Mothers were both beside themselves that Angie had only bought a 12 lb turkey to feed 12 of us. Because of the fear that our Mothers instilled in us that there wouldn’t be enough turkey, hardly anyone ate turkey and there was plenty left over! So now, almost every Thanksgiving, I reach out to Angie and ask if she has her 12lb turkey in the oven!