Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I've only not been home at Thanksgiving one time and it was awful. I love it because of the food, more specifically, because I get to cook most of the food. Dad is a complete traditionalist when it comes to the turkey, the dressing, the mashed potatoes and the cranberry fluff. We have the recipes for the dressing and the fluff in Granny's handwriting that my mom keeps in a special place in the recipe drawer.

I also have The Fork. It's a fork that for some reason I associate with cooking with Granny. I don't really know where it came from. It's ginormous and it has notches on the sides just below the tines. I can't make Thanksgiving food without it. Mom has tried to substitute another large fork, but it's not The Fork. Someday I'll pass it on to Chloe.

One of our family traditions is that we do our Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. It started when Todd got married and we needed to figure out a time share with them. Lisa's family is bigger than ours, so they have more people to work around. I really love it and it's become way more normal to me than having it on Thursday. Here's why we do our dinner on Friday:

1. As I said, Todd can go to his in-laws
2. Most everyone works through Wednesday, so it's tough to pull off a big dinner in that amount of time. This way, we can do some cooking on Thursday and some on Friday and not be rushed
3. The stores are open, so if we need something we can go get it
4. We can invite other people, because they've already done their dinner
5. I can watch the Cowboys play on Thursday without interruption

The great thing is that we can even still go shopping on Black Friday, but we do it in the evening when everyone else has gone home. It's a win-win.

Another family tradition is pictured above - the littlest one crumbles the cornbread. I love how Chloe is sitting up on the kitchen counter and tucked under the cabinet. Alas, she will be too big this year to do that, but she is still going to be crumbling the cornbread. Next year Ian will be able to join her.

No boys allowed!

Boys, you're going to want to go in the other room and watch the game about now.

Are they gone?

Ok.

There's a website for our lady parts. Who knew? I clicked on this link on my gmail, because, well, I had to click on this link, and apparently we cannot be left with out uterus(i?) unsupervised. There is a website called MyMonthlyCycles.com that keeps track of everything from our, well, cycles, to our doctor's appointments and self breast exams. Couldn't we just put it in Outlook and synch it with our PDAs?

It's also possible that I find this curious because inside, I am a 13-year-old boy. To wit - there is an elevator in our building that is crying out for a remote-controlled whoopie cushion and it seems that I am the only one that can hear it.

I've been tagged by LadyBurg

Tagged = someone challenges you to come up with 10 random things about yourself, then you have to tag 5 other bloggers.

Here goes:

1. I can only eat snack foods (i.e., peanuts, crackers, cookies, m & m's, etc.) in even numbers. However, this rule does not apply to chips, except Pringles.

2. I read magazines from front to back, but I read newspapers and peruse catalogs from back to front. Interesting side note: I found out only a couple of years ago that my dad does the exact same thing.

3. When reading a novel, I read about 1/3 of the way through and then I read the end. The interesting thing for me is how they get from where I am to where they end up.

4. I love fried chicken gizzards.

5. My family celebrates Thanksgiving on Friday. It's so we can have other people over, my brother can go to his in-laws, we have an extra day to prep, and I can watch the Cowboys play.

6. My pajamas have to match, and I can only wear them one night and then I have to wash them.

7. I don't have pierced ears.

8. I have never seen any of the Rocky, Godfather or James Bond movies.

9. I am a very good cook, fairly good at baking, but for some reason I am rubbish with making cookies.

10. I read Perez Hilton religiously, but am not proud of it.

Thanks, Ladyburg.

Now it's your turn:
AbbyKK
Katherine @ Gleaming Lark
Kristen (Ft.) Rudd
Mrs. Donut
Two Worlds One

The Reluctant Dinosaur

Really, this is just an excuse to post pictures of my babies, since I am the most obnoxiously doting aunt in the free world. Here are a few gems from halloween

Chloe is Tinkerbell and Ian is a dinosaur, and he's so not into it.

Cheerios? Never mind. All is forgiven




















The Trick or Treat crew - I don't know the Mickey baby, but I had to post b/c of the gloves and the shoes. Priceless!

Songs I Never Skip on the iPod

I use my iPod all the time and I'm a random girl - I rarely listen to one artist or one album. However, depending on the mood I'm in, I'll skip songs until I find one that fits my mood. Here is a list of songs that I love and NEVER skip, regardless of mood.

1. Don't Dream it's Over - Crowded House
2. Scratch - Kendall Payne
3. Book of Love - Peter Gabriel
4. Ain't No Sunshine - Lighthouse Family
5. Mating Game - Bitter:Sweet
6. If I Had a Boat - Lyle Lovett
7. Pour Some Sugar on Me - Def Leppard (shut up)
8. Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol
9. Mystery - Indigo Girls
10. Schadenfreude - Avenue Q
11. Edge of the Ocean - Ivy
12. Power of Two - Indigo Girls
13. Old Apartment - Barenaked Ladies
14. The Road's My Middle Name - Bonnie Raitt (or anything from Nick of Time)
15. Any song from Come On, Come On by Mary Chapin Carpenter
16. Why - Annie Lennox
17. Venus - Bananarama
18. Slow Down - Ben Jelen
19. Where is the Love - Black-Eyed Peas
20. Life is Short - Butterfly Boucher
21. Lady Marmalade from Moulin Rouge
22. To the Only God - Dave Crowder & Shane Barnard
23. I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie
24. Fields of Gold - Eva Cassidy
25. Let Go - Frou Frou
26. Gone Daddy Gone - Gnarls Barkley
27. I Need You to Survive - Hezekiah Walker
28. 24 - Jem
29. In the Air - Laurell Barker
30. Get Outta My Kitchen - Ledisi
31. You Are Mine - Mute Math
32. All Night - Sam Phillips
33. Dwelling Place - Tommy Walker
34. Moondance - Van Morrison
35. Bust A Move - Young MC