Thanksgiving Tag Post

I know this is a Vlog tag and I will be making one of those as well and linking up below.  However, if you are unable to watch the video, I have also answered the questions below.  :)

1. What is your favorite Thanksgiving side dish? Ever since I was born my Grandma Alfreda has always made her family famous stuffing.  I would devour that stuffing in seconds and as I grew older, I always asked my Grandma to make me a pan of stuffing just for me.  My Grandma passed away five years ago but ever since, I have been making her stuffing with the recipe that she left me.  I keep my Grandma's memory alive through her recipes that I make.  

2. What is your favorite Thanksgiving dessert?  My Grandma Pauline makes the most amazing cheesecake that anyone has ever tasted in their entire lives.  (And I'm not kidding.  Other people have said the same thing.)  Her cheesecake is so creamy and delicious, there usually aren't any leftovers of this at all.  It's definitely my favorite desert and she brings it every Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.

3. What does your ideal Thanksgiving outfit look like?  For Thanksgiving I usually wear comfortable clothes because my mom and I are usually cooking and serving.  This year I am wearing a cozy oversized brown sweater with  my denim leggings and uggs.  Comfortable, fashionable, warm and cozy for the holiday!  Not to mention the leggings give plenty of room for my bloated stomach after I stuff myself crazy!

4. What is your best Thanksgiving memory?  When I was 17 we had a cat named Buttons.  Buttons loved to be a trouble maker and jump on counters while we were cooking because she constantly wanted attention.  Well, my mom was cooking something on the stove and Buttons was eating her food on the counter when I hear my mom scream, "Buttons is on fire!"  I run into the kitchen to find out that my cat's tail went by the stove and the tip caught on fire.  Thankfully, she wasn't hurt and wasn't phased at all by this happening.  I was horrified and so angry at my mom when it happened, but now we look back and laugh at that Thanksgiving memory.

5. Least favorite Thanksgiving dish. I hate apple pie or any pie with crust on top.  Give me pecan pie or pumpkin pie and I will be a happy camper.

6. Do you have any quirky Thanksgiving traditions?  We don't, maybe we aren't a quirky family?  We are starting the Elf on the Shelf tradition on Thanksgiving this year, maybe that can be our quirky tradition. :)

7. Where do you and your family usually celebrate Thanksgiving?  Every single year we have Thanksgiving over at our house.  I think we've only strayed from that tradition once and had Thanksgiving at my Grandmother's house a few years back.

8. What do you love most about Thanksgiving? I absolutely love the food and being with my family and friends.  Not to mention that after Thanksgiving dinner is Black Friday shopping -- another one of my favorite things!

9. What do you think has changed most since the first Thanksgiving?   Well, there are no Indians and Pilgrims anymore!  ;)  Seriously though, I think people get caught up in partying, being with family, cooking and thinking about what they're going to buy on Black Friday and forget that on Thanksgiving we are to reflect on what we are thankful for. 

10. What are you thankful for? See the prior post for what I am thankful for. :)

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Happy Thanksgiving 2013!

Happy Turkey Day to all of my amazing readers!  I hope everyone has a day filled with family, fun and tons of Turkey.  I can't wait to have my first Thanksgiving in my new home with the people that I love.  It's going to be a great day, I just know it!  My mom and I have been cooking since yesterday and we can't wait to devour the great food that we made.  I also hope that I can make it out tonight for some Black Friday shopping fun!  

What am I thankful for on this Thanksgiving?

• My children who mean the world to me.  They're my life and I would never exchange them for anything in the world 

• My new home that I am absolutely in love with.  I'm so glad that I found this beautiful place to be in for the Holidays and love that we have a lot more room for our family.  All of my anxiety about moving was just silly!

• My family who is so supportive and helpful, I don't know what I would have done without them in the past year.  They've helped me emotionally, financially and in every way in between.

• My friends who have been there for me through absolutely every hardship and great memory I've had in the time that I have known them.  Some friends have come and gone but my true friends will always be by my side...I'm thankful for that.   

Once again, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.  

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DID ANYONE ELSE GO SHOPPING?

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday filled with food, family and relaxation.  I missed blogging and you guys all week, but I haven't had the chance to do anything.  Honestly, I even had to take some time off from work, which was insanity.  Let me give a quick overview of my week from hell. (And I am not exaggerating when I say that.)

My mother decided that we were going to go Thanksgiving shopping AND bring the kids.  Now, just saying that makes you cringe, doesn't it?  Well, the part that makes me cringe even more is having to go with my mother.  I love my mom, don't get me wrong, but she shops at a snails pace.  She goes down every aisle carefully observing every single thing on the shelf.  She doesn't understand the meaning of speed grocery shopping, as I do.  (Especially when we leave at 11 am and I have to work at 1pm)  So, my mom is walking down every aisle at about 0.5 MPH and I offer to take the list and another cart.  Here is how that went...

Me: "Mom, why don't you just let me get another cart and help out with the list?"

Mom: "I don't get out much. I can do it."

Me: "Is there anything I can run and get for you to make this easier?"

Mom: "Do you think I am handicapped? I can do it myself."

Me: "Why don't you just give me half the list and I could help out?"

Mom: "Fine, go get me a bag of chips."

A bag of chips?  That's it?  I constantly go grocery shopping for my mom.  It isn't like I don't know how to do it.  I also do understand that she doesn't get out much because of her knee, but I'm sure her knee would be much better if she hurried up at the grocery store and got home and off of it.  In the middle of this, after bringing the chips back, I hear this from my daughter:

Alayna: "Mommy, I lost my American Girl doll hat! Lainie doesn't have her hat!"  So here I go, Alayna in tow, looking for this tiny pink American Girl hat that has mysteriously disappeared.  We walk for about 10 minutes before we find the damn hat by the frozen turkeys.   OF COURSE - No shopping trip with the kids is complete without some kind of incident.  

Here it is, now 12:45 and I tell my mom that either I have to go home and pick her up on my break or she has to hurry up so we can get out of the store.  She sighs in frustration and tells me that we can check out what we already have and I can go back to the store the day after.  Oh lovely, the excitement, I cannot wait to go back Thanksgiving shopping closer to Thanksgiving.  

We get out of the store, I get home to get onto my system for work and I find out the loveliest thing: My phone isn't working for work.  I try to pick the phone up to call into work and I hear nothing, dead air.  Of course, Verizon tech support remains to be useless as it has been for years, and I'm just more frustrated than anything that I couldn't get to work.  Verizon tells me that they can send me a replacement.  That's nice, but I lose money while they send that to me?  Not an option.  I decide to go to fight with them in person.  

Remember, the closest Verizon Wireless store to me is in Staten Island.  It isn't far, but I have to pay $8 for the bridge to get into New York. 

I get there and completely freak out on the lady behind the desk. (Of course, it isn't her fault, but I had to be overly dramatic for effect and for her to know I was absolutely serious.) After I was done the poor lady looked like a deer in the headlights because I had really let her have it.  Needless to say, I had to buy another phone because they no longer sell the hub. (That was pretty much a loser product lol)  Thank God for my plastic money. (aka: Credit card) Because I had no cash on me.  So now, I wait for a rebate in the mail to recoup some of my money.

Oh wait, but it gets better.  Last Saturday my uncle had trouble with his car starting.  He was home all week because he had surgery and was to be heading back.  His car wouldn't start so they towed it and I drove him back.  Well this week they gave us a call back and told us that we had to call a tow truck to take his car to Nissan.  It was probably his key and the computer chip in it not working.  Goodie Goodie Gumdrops...  Our AAA card is in my mom's name, so of course I had to drive her because my uncle wasn't there.  

FOUR AND A HALF HOURS we were waiting at Firestone for them to tow the freaking car to Nissan. (Which is 10 minutes away)  First they had forgotten about our service call, then they told the service car it was a lock out, then they canceled that since it wasn't and forgot to put in our new service call for a tow.  So imagine two kids in a repair shop waiting room for four hours. I don't think we're ever going to be allowed back into that repair shop again... Ever... 

The next day we were told that it was the main computer system in his car.  $1400 to fix a 12 year old car.  I suggested to my uncle to finance a new car.  His car probably is worth just a little over the $1400 and it wouldn't be worth it to fix an older car like that.  Hopefully he listens to me. 

Now, this bad luck had been drawn out through every day this week.  Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were terrible and something happened each day.  Monday, I had lost an entire day of work because of these messes that I had to take care of.  

Thursday (Thanksgiving) I wake up and smell something terrible.  Of course, I was exhausted so I disregarded it. lol  Next thing I hear is Alayna waking up and running into the kitchen, "Grandma! Call 911! There's a fire!"  I want to ease your minds, there wasn't a fire.  Though the smoke was so thick you could cut it with a knife.  After my mom comes into the kitchen cursing everything out, she tells us what had happened.

She was melting margarine in a pan to make her stuffing and put the ignition on HIGH HEAT instead of LOW HEAT.  It wasn't a fire, but our cast iron frying pan burnt so badly the smoke was terrible.  I have asthma... So I'm unable to breathe and I had to go downstairs to get fresh air.  Our hall way STILL smells of smoke.  Disgusting.  

Yesterday, I went out at the wee hours of the morning in order to go shopping.  Yes, I am crazy.  I freely admit that I am.  I have been told by everyone I know.  Last year was the first year I started to go out Black Friday shopping and I fell in love with it.  I got all of my Christmas shopping done and got home at 8:15 AM yesterday morning.  Needless to say, I didn't work yesterday.  I never expected to be out that late, but I hit quite a few stores and didn't spend that much money at all.  I can relax now and know I have no other shopping to do. :)  The joy.

I will get those winners for my two giveaways tomorrow morning and Im going to announce two more as well!  Keep posted!

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