I'm thankful for a lot on this Thanksgiving Day

Money makes the world go around, or at least the song from 'Cabaret' would have us believe that.

Call me crazy, but I prefer instead to believe love makes the world go 'round. Yup. Who's with me?

In the past four days I have gotten a lot of love: every day was another surprise. 

Hmm...I wonder what today will bring?

Over the weekend a cousin (who is a regular reader of my blog but doesn't comment) e-mailed me to tell me he had ordered two magazine subscriptions for me.

He was hoping I didn't already subscribe. Of course I don't! 

Who can afford magazines? Although a certain unnamed man in this house gets a couple that deal with cars. It's his therapy.

On Monday an artist friend gave me five Christmas ornaments he had made three years ago. They still have the price tags on them. ;-) 

My favorite is a lump that is black on one side to resemble coal with the word naughty painted on it and the other side is painted to look like a gold nugget, and it says nice.

On Tuesday a woman I've met through my job gave me a ceramic guardian angel to hang on the wall to watch over me.

And yesterday as I was leaving radiation one of the technicians wished me a Happy Thanksgiving and handed me a homemade apple pie. It's delicious! What a nice surprise!

And after that I covered a story and tried to interview four-year-olds. When I was ready to leave two of the girls asked their teacher if they could give hugs. So they hugged me around my knees. It was adorable.

'Tis better to give than receive but I must say being the recipient this week hasn't been bad at all! 

Yesterday was our Cameron's 21st birthday. We didn't sing Happy Birthday or have his cake, so we'll do that today after dinner, if we can stuff anything more into our stuffed selves. He understood I was busy with work and other things.

I do have a lot for which I'm thankful. I wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Ruby Tuesday ~ holiday time is here

Here are Kid Two (left) and Kid One posing for their Aunt Brenda on Thanksgiving Day.

We give thanks every day that we have such great kids.

And below are two views of the formal dining room at the Osborne Homestead Museum in Derby, Ct., which is decked out for the Christmas season. I did a story about the beautiful home, which is decorated every year by local garden clubs. You can read it here.

To see many photos featuring the color red, visit Mary T at Work of the Poet.

Leftovers

We just returned from taking our kids back to the University of Hartford. They have a busy three weeks of school work ahead with the end of the semester fast approaching.

Here we are in a rare family portrait. This was taken on Thanksgiving at Ralph's sister Michele's house, and I thought I would use it as a "weekend wrap up" photo. Haha

Thanks go to sister-in-law Brenda for making us sit for a photo!

I hope your weekend was as nice as ours was.

Gobble, gobble

We missed out on the tantalizing smells of turkey roasting in the oven yesterday. Our blog friend, Empress Bee, wrote about those cooking smells here. I agree with her that they're awesome.

We spent Thanksgiving at Ralph's sister Michele's house and had a wonderful time. Lots of family stopped in and everyone seemed happy and healthy.

She gave us the decimated turkey frame, which I am boiling right now for future soup-making.

Yay!

Tomorrow a good friend will bring over a complete turkey dinner and the six of us will enjoy another Thanksgiving at home. Double yay! Good thing we all like turkey. The cats may even get a few shards of it tomorrow. If' they're good.

I am going to work today; no Black Friday running around for me. Unless it's on the Internet.

Happy day after Turkey Day!

Need is greater than ever this year

I've written several stories recently about non-profit organizations working to make a difference in the lives of many less fortunate families for Thanksgiving.

Organizers of food drives and distributions all say the same thing: the need is greater than ever this year.

It may be too late to brighten a family's Thanksgiving, but I suggest that you consider giving a bit more than you normally would give to a local food pantry or toy drive this Christmas.

It will help those who have fallen on hard times, and it will make you feel good in the process.

(Getting down off my soap box now.)

'Cool as a cucumber'

Yesterday I read a second newspaper account, this one published in a weekly, about my mother's dramatic ladder rescue from her smoke-filled bedroom.
Her name wasn't mentioned, which is fine. Just her age and the address. Anyway, the quote from the firefighter who rescued her will stay with me always. He said, "She was as cool as a cucumber. She was getting a little 'antsy,' and rightly so."
Oh, boy. My mother is too much. All she was wearing was a nightgown. She said he told her to drop herself onto him. He was on a ladder, 15 feet up. She hesitated, apparently. "I can take it," she told me he said. Whew.
I'm hoping she is released from the hospital today. It has been a long haul.
On this Thanksgiving morning I'm in no condition to write a serious post about being thankful. Although I feel I should.
But before all this happened I did have something silly set to mark the holiday. So I'm sharing it here. I love these little animated things. But then again, I'm easily amused.

Happy Thanksgiving