Black Friday

The day after Thanksgiving is called “Black Friday.” It is the official kick-off of the Christmas shopping season. Most people have the day after Thanksgiving off from work, so merchants lure these idle people to their stores by offering sales on desirable merchandise. The stores open extremely early at 5 am and offer incredible deals for only a few hours to get people in and spending money. Reporters with cameras show the stampede of humanity as some poor store employee unlocks the door and makes a dash for safety before being trampled by eager bargain hunters.

The local news channels have helicopters circling above the shopping malls, reporting on traffic tie-ups and over crowded parking lots. Usually, we sit back in the comfort of our family room and laugh at people who would line up in the cold and wait for a store to open just to buy things. But this year, the laugh is on us.

Today my husband was reading the advertisements in the newspaper. He saw an ad for a laptop computer at an extremely low price. It just so happens we are in the market for a laptop computer for one of our kids. “The store opens at 5 am and they only have 15 computers at this price” he called to me as I was preparing our Thanksgiving feast. “Only15?" I groan back to him. " That means we will have to be in line at 4 am at the latest!” Silently, we weigh the benefits of saved money for lost sleep.

So, tomorrow we’ll join the stampede of humanity in search of Christmas bargains in the land of Capitalism. Vive the USA!

Reality Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 22, we will celebrate Thanksgiving at our house. I thought I’d tell you what a typical Thanksgiving looks like at our house!

This year we are staying home. We aren’t traveling to a relative’s house and no one is going to come visit us over this holiday except my married son and his wife Stephanie. Three weeks ago, Stephanie volunteered to prepare some dishes for our Thanksgiving feast. She wanted to know what to make a few weeks early so she could practice preparing them. She’s a new bride and still finding her way around in the kitchen. She likes to make bread, so I told her she could make the bread of her choice and a dessert. I’m sure whatever she does will be wonderful.

Usually, I spend all Thanksgiving morning working like a crazy woman to prepare our family’s traditional Thanksgiving favorites. I was raised in the southern United States, so I tend to fix dishes in the southern tradition: Roasted turkey, cornbread dressing with giblet gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, fruit salad and rolls. For dessert we like pecan pie, pumpkin pie and maybe a cake, usually chocolate. The nice thing about cooking all these foods is that I don’t have to cook anything else for 2 days. We just eat re-heated leftovers until they are gone.

My children are very attached to these traditional dishes. If I leave one out or prepared one differently, I hear moaning, groaning and suggestions that Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving without these specific foods! So I keep this holiday’s food exactly the same so they will be happy. However, I’ve declared independence from the traditional Christmas Eve dinner, leaving me options to try new things. They really complained last year.

I also add mashed potatoes and gravy to the menu. This is for my husband. He was not raised in the south. Although, he enjoys most everything southern, he doesn’t like sweet potatoes. So I make him mashed potatoes so he is happy.

We use my formal china plates, crystal and silverware at this special family feast. We only use them at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It adds to the ‘specialness’ (not a real word) to our celebration. It means we have to wash everything by hand afterwards because they are too delicate for the dishwasher. We have enough hands around the house to get this task done quickly with only a little grumbling.

So far I’ve described slaving over a hot stove cooking food, people complaining about what is or isn’t served, someone unhappy about being forced to eat a dish he doesn’t like, and people mumbling under their breath about hand washing dishes when there is a perfectly good machine to do it.

Sounds pretty…unthankful? I agree it sounds that way, however, I think it’s just the reality of seven independent thinkers, gathering as family to sit down together on one of our favorite holidays. Jon and I have celebrated 27 Thanksgivings together with each child joining in as they were born. That’s a lot of time to build tradition. Tradition is part of what binds a family together. As we all sit around the table and look to my husband to say a Thanksgiving prayer to bless our meal, each of us are touched in our hearts with gratitude to God for being at the table to share a dinner with the people we love most in the world.

And that is what Thanksgiving is really all about.

The Fattest American

The Japanese have always had a reputation for being tourists. In the states, I’ve always noticed Japanese people in tour groups or with a guide book exploring sites on their own. And they are always snapping photos. In fact, it has become a stereo type to feature a camera around the neck of a Japanese tourist as their typical ‘look’. However, the joke is on us!

Recently I heard that Japanese tourists have a friendly competition among one another. When they come to the states, they take plenty of pictures. But the picture they covet the most is of the fattest American. When they return home, they gather together to compare fat American photos. The person with the picture of the most grotesquely fat American wins! Some of these photos are posted on the internet for all to see. I was going to investigate this rumor, but I was afraid I might see a picture of myself! :-P

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Albuquerque is famous for its Balloon Fiesta. For nine days in October the blue skies are filled each morning with 700 colorful hot air balloons. The weather this year was mild and near perfect. We went to an early morning launch. A dozen balloons were inflated before the sun came up. Their gas burners caused them to glow in the pre-dawn dark. They lifted off together to test the wind direction. One reason Albuquerque is a great place to fly hot air balloons is for it's unique wind effect called the ‘box effect.’ The wind blows to the south at a low altitude. The balloons ascend and travel in a southern direction. After awhile the pilots lift the balloons higher and catch winds blowing in a northern direction. Its quite possible for a balloon to touch down very close to where it took off. The ‘Dawn Patrol’ balloons signaled that the box effect was working perfectly. Then hundreds of balloons began to inflate. The sight is absolutely unforgettable! Check out my video!