foreign...

Mayhaps you would be surprised to know that I still have muddie buddies in my house.  I know.  Me too.  Although I just made a pretty good dent in them.  And I didn't make fudge yet but I got the ingredients.  And latch on to this magic.  You take pretzels (not the stick variety) put them on a cookie sheet while the oven heats up to 400.   You place a rolo on top and stick them in the oven for about 4 minutes.  When they come out, you smoosh a pecan half on top.  I haven't made those yet either.  But I have the pretzels and the pecans on stand-by waiting for the rolos and as you can see, I have memorized the recipe.  I didn't read it just now and type it out for you.  Oh, no.  It's up there just a waitin'.  You may recall that previously, I was interested in losing weight.  I think a more successful venture would be to see how much I can put on.  That way, if I fail, I win.

Turkey day is on the way.  It's going to be low-key.  I just realized that Hubs wants me to call the Saudi and invite him over to eat with us.  I mean, I didn't just realize that happened because we only just talked about it like an hour or two ago.  What I mean is that it will be interesting.  As I am serving ham.  The Saudi joked once about me serving him pork sometime and just not telling him.  I think he was joking.  There's a part of me that is convinced he really wanted me to because he wanted to try it but didn't want to be held accountable to Allah for eating it.  Let's be real.  Bacon is just about worth conversion.  But I never did bait and switch him.

Skunk and Peanut are having a Thanksgiving feast at their school on Monday.  We are supplying the corn and the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Because peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were sure to be part of the original cross-cultural exchange.  Peanut and Skunk don't like peanut butter and jelly.  They like peanut butter and "chocolate" - which is Nutella.  I fool myself into thinking that it's extra protein since it is derived from a nut.  So, we asked the teacher if we could bring both kinds of sandwiches in.  She said yes.  So, here is what I was thinking about the corn.  I was thinking about taking the little baby ones that come in the jar.  I mean, kids totally dig miniature.  Pretty much, the smaller something is, the more thrilled and obsessive they get with it.  Observe Polly Pocket et. al.  So, instead of taking boring old canned corn, what if they had miniature cobs that they could just eat the whole thing of?  Fun?  I think so.  Probably Skunk and Peanut are not going to touch corn in any formation so it doesn't matter much.

I have my sweet potatoes to do any myriad of ways to make many different people thrilled with the results.  And marshmallows to that end as well.  I'm not making green bean casserole this year.  I don't think we are going to miss it.  Really, if I just bought a can of the fried onions, that would be even happier than eating fatty cream of crud soup mixed with not so terribly green canned beans.  The only thing that makes that dish is the onions.  So, let's just eat the can of onions and call it a day!  Or maybe we could just go somewhere and order onion rings.  Who has the best ones?  My mom used to make beer battered onion rings.  I think she would make them like once a year or every two years.  They were the absolute bomb.  And not just in a hanging out in your arteries waiting to explode kind of way.  They were dang delicious.  That's what I would like to have on the table for Thanksgiving.  I'd be all thankful for that.

The Black Friday ads are trickling onto the Internet.  I can't figure out how much attention I should be paying to those this year.  Hubs and I have done Black Friday before.  And it's been fun.  Glorious deals to be had, caught up in the competition and the hunt and the score.  I totally get it.  Although, in some ways, Black Friday is for amateurs.  I do my gift shopping all year long hitting deals as they come and am usually pretty much done before the 4 am sales that day.

But this year is just a very different year.  For one thing, Hubs and I are doing everything we can to have a slave free Christmas this year.  I bought  some good stuff for some good people that helps some good people.  It's a win win win.  If you are interested in how you can help make that happen, start with some good fair trade coffee for the coffee drinker in your life.  Buy fair trade chocolate for the chocolate lover.  Buy local.  Check out Trade as One for a huge selection of items that help the people who make the items have a sustainable income.  It's just not okay for someone to sacrifice their childhood, their dignity, their quality of life so that I can have something cheaper - or anything at all.

For another thing, the presents for the kids will be a very different animal this go round.  For a few years, Hubs and I decided that we would only buy our kids 3 presents each for Christmas.  But the kids have 3 sets of adoring grandparents who buy them presents as well.  So three can easily turn into roughly one billion.  Give or take.  This year, we are asking for cash money, pooling it all up and buying each kid 3 presents total- from the lot of us.  For real.  Jesus got three gifts.  Good enough for the King of Kings is good enough for my kids! He's all the time giving us great examples on how to do stuff.  This is a good idea!  And you know, it's probably harder for me than it is for the kids.  I do get great joy out of giving.  And they dig getting stuff.  Unfortunately, as they have the attention span of gnats, once the getting is got, the care and keeping there is not.  Yes.  I do know I'm a poet.  I know it.  This is going to be a challenge to me.  I'm great at the gifts.  I need to be better at the meaningful.  Would Princess care if she didn't get a bracelet kit if it meant we could go do a cooking lesson together?  Would Scooby forego yet another Lego set if I took him out for pizza and laser tag?  It's just that much easier for me to express my love with a thing.  It's so much harder for me to express my love by actually giving it away or doing it how someone else needs me to do it, rather than how I most feel comfortable doing it.  Whoa.  That was deep and slightly somber.  Anywho.  A huge hope is that by reducing the number of gifts, the kids will take some time to discern favorites and there is less distraction so that when they get bored with those 3 things, they just dang well have to figure out a new way to use them.  And the thing is, I have no idear what it is they should get.  Skunk just keeps asking for various superhero toothbrushes.  I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth - or a skunk in the teeth...  If I just get those for him, I'm in the clear, right?  It's what he asked for.  And Princess and Peanut pretty much want every single girly thing that graces any catalogue coming across their laps.  So as I peruse the Black Friday ads, I'm hard pressed to see much of anything I'm willing to wake up crazy early to purchase.  Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that I won't be out there.   I

Here's today's new thing.  Veronica Mars.  Leave it to me to discover and enjoy a television show that is no longer.  I'm into the third episode of the first season and I'm totally hooked.  The writing is great and now I know where Kristen Bell came from and what the big deal is.  Yep.  This is gonna be one of those types of shows where I'll do marathon nights.  As it is, it's already midnight and as soon as this is over, I will allow myself to go to bed.  I'm giving it 9 out of 10 Jenny's Jewels.  Check it out - Netflix, library, whatever.  Let us marvel at what t.v. can be. Or was.  You know.  Since it got all cancelled or finished or whatever.

One final thing to share.  We went to church tonight and we got to hear the number raised for our campaign.  Unfortunately, that is all I can share about that.  There are 3 more services tomorrow and it is only fair to let that be as much as surprise to the people going then as it was to us going tonight.  The number is a miracle.  Any number would have been.  Given this economy, given the holidays, given all the things that demand our attention and our resources and our money.  Given the growing apathy and the growing blind eye - there's no reason to have raised as much as we did.  It's a number of hope.  It's a number of radical, unadulterated love.  I believe in my heart it's a number capable of changing the world - because of the hearts and the consideration of all the people in coming up with their own sacrifices - all in the name of love.  People are doing things they have never done before.  Our church is doing something it has never done before.  We are encroaching on new territory.  It's exciting.  And it's a little nerve-wracking like any adventure is when it begins.  Okay, Okay.  I will give you one hint.  There is a zero in the number...  S'okay.  I'll tell ya tomorrow.   Now let's go to bed.  Not together.  I only have a queen and Hubs would be confused and upset.