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.
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Feast your eyes on this...
All right, all right. Everyone settle down. I'm here now.
I just got back from shopping. I know. Shocker. Me and Lady Gaga had some last minute mega sale-ness to attend to. She's my favorite shopping buddy. She's very patient when I have to go back and forth across the store when I forget stuff I already passed. Oh. I'm gonna tell you how that shopping trip breaks down right here and now! This is the part where Artie would raise his fingerless gloved hand in the hair and say "testify!" You should totally get that reference... At Kroger, I like to give my Kroger card after everything has scanned. It's cheap entertainment. So, after everything was rung up and before my Kroger card, my total was $249.xx. After she scanned my Kroger card, my total dropped to $155.xx. After my coupons, my total was $71.59. That's right. My grand total savings was $173.76 OR 71%. Imagine if I still didn't have to buy some pull-ups for that sweet skunk of mine. Bless his heart. He just can't hold his own in the night time. Literally. And also, I did buy some hummus, black olives, shredded carrots, an avocado, a cucumber AND some clearanced out Flat Outs for a totally killer sandwich for my lunch tomorrow. I have to eat with a bunch of four year olds so I'm feeling a little entitled to a lovely grown-up meal. So, that was an additional 10 buxish of splurge but my rationale is that Hubs DID say he wanted to have some hummus around. And those ingredients are mighty healthy. So, if I could just NOT eat every morsel of sweet in my house, move my arse a bit to lose a bit of it, AND eat these sandwiches all week, something good has GOT to happen. Right? right?
So, let's address those dangling threads from last night. I told you I would tell you my Christmas revelation. One of my favorite things to do when I am driving around at night alone in the car, is to leave the stereo off. When the weather warrants it, I like to have the windows down a bit and just seep in that moving silence - moving like I'm in motion. Not moving as in my arm hairs raise a little and I get a little verklempt. It's wonderful. Last night, however, I decided to keep the radio on. The radio has been locked to the same station since roughly Halloween. You know what I'm going to say next, don't you? That right! Christmas music! I know that Thanksgiving hasn't occurred yet, but I kind of don't care. I'm not big on Thanksgiving. I mean - I'm HUGE on giving thanks. I'm rather insistent on it and I try to make sure that the big dude upstairs is fully aware that I am cognizant of my blessed beyond measureness. But I don't really have feelings about Thanksgiving as a day. I guess because originally it was this romanticized holiday all about the pilgrims and the Indians coming together and having a feast with corn and gourds and turkey and cylindrically shaped gelled cranberries. I accept it as an excuse for family to come together. I certainly accept it as an excuse to eat lots of food. But I'm not terribly moved - moved like the arm hair version, not like in motion - or excited about the rest of it. Maybe I'm just such a rebel that I'm not into traditions that are kind of forced on me. For example. I don't like turkey. I'll eat some pressed turkey deli style product on a sandwich. I'll eat some turkey meat with some gravy on a sandwich. But turkey is just so precarious. You really do get what you pay for when it comes to those big tasteless birds. And no one wants to spend lots of money on a turkey! At least no one I spend Thanksgiving with. And I get that. But, truly, the more you spend on a turkey, the more succulent it is, the harder it is to dry out and the more tasty. But I have probably only had some such turkey once or twice in my life. Certainly enough times to know that there is a difference. But not enough times to treat it like a holy grail that I spend time pining for it until the next Thanksgiving arrives. So. For our Thanksgiving, we have ham. Honeybaked, preferably. But this year, we are providing Thanksgiving boxes for our church and we aren't going anywhere and we aren't hosting anyone. We are on a budget and I don't feel bound to abide by anyone's expectations of what should be on the table. I asked the kids tonight what they wanted for Thanksgiving dinner. Here are the answers: tacos, pizza, cheese, and the taco soup that she wouldn't touch for dinner tonight. She wouldn't eat it tonight, but she wants it for Thanksgiving. Whatever. I just wanted to know what they would say. Then Hubs wanted to "throw out some options". Turkey. Sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top. Apple pie. Lemon meringue pie. Chocolate meringue pie. Pumpkin pie. It would seem that he thought that his mother was coming to cook him some sort of Thanksgiving feast (complete with an entire pie buffet, apparently...) because not only do I not make any of those things, but I don't even LIKE any of those things. Not a one. I like my sweet potatoes with a crunchy pecan, praline kind of thing going on atop. I would eat a chocolate meringue pie if it was all I had to eat for my sweet tooth but I don't like meringue. So, I don't know what we are going to do. But I do know that Hubs is going to be HIGHLY disappointed. Anywho. I know that it's early yet to be listening to Christmas songs but I love Christmas. I love decorating and baking and magic. And I love celebrating the most audacious act of love ever - that God crammed Himself into little baby Jesus (oh, Talladega Nights, how I love thee...) and crashed into the earth into a smelly barn with itchy hay. And I'm all too happy to start celebrating all that as early as the beginning of November. So, I'm tooling around (shopping, you know.) and the windows are down and Christmas songs are playing and it's night. And do you know what I realized? White Christmases are highly over-rated. I looked at my temperature gauge in my car and it said 68 degrees and I thought about all those people in California and Florida and before, I felt sorry for them. Because I really believed that part of the magic of Christmas was the snow. But you know what else about snow?? It's flippin' cold!! I've had plenty of white Christmases. I don't need snow for Christmas. In fact, as I was enjoying those very favorable conditions, I found myself jealous. That's right. I was covetous of warm, clear Christmas. I want that. I want to wish people mele kaliki maka and not be quirky or charming because I'm saying something a little off beat. I'm saying it because I'm in freakin' Hawaii and that's what we all say!! And that, my firends, was my Christmas revelation.
Now, let's talk stuffing. I bought more last night. I know. I know! But it was apple stuffing. And I can't get that at the mega sale. I can't get the cranberry stuffing there either. It's not enough to have cranberries, you gotta have cranberries IN other Thanksgiving goods. And also, there were tear pads of coupons to try the apple stuffing. I could get boxes for 29 cents each after that coupon. And then, when I combined that with my buy 4 boxes of stuffing, get a fifth one free coupon, I'm not really sure how you could expect me to pass it up. No. Really. How do I pass that up?
I watched Repo Men last night. It was pretty cool. I try not to get caught up in the personal lives of celebrities. Actually, that is a total lie. I am all up in their business but I'm trying not to be. But I will tell you that I have trouble not judging a celebrity by the behavior and holding it against them when it comes to viewing their movies. Like. I'm definitely hard pressed to need to see anything with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie. I just don't respect them as people and the very public things they have done to hurt other people. I know there are two sides to every story. I know that it's not right for me to judge anyone. But I do and I don't like 'em. So, here comes Jude Law. He's a known skank. And maybe he's changed his ways. I hope so. I hope we all get the chance to. But I went ahead and watched his movie. Plus I love me some Forest Whitaker. That dude can act. Did you see him in The Shield? Did you see The Shield? You just gotta. On both. So, Repo Men was all science fictiony and pretty violent. I don't mind violence per se. It's all in the circumstances. For instance, I didn't mind it in Inglorious Basterds. I think because it was Nazi violence. I'm just sayin'. They were stupid. But the violence in Repo Men was a little tougher for me. And I don't have something I can point to and say - that's why. What was funny about it was that after we watched it, Hubs and I read the summary that Netlix had on it and it was completely different than the movie we watched. The movie was based on a book so maybe that summary was about the book version. Which is frustrating because I think you all know how I feel about the disassembly of the story that occurs when they turn a book into a movie. I will give Repo Men 6 out of 10 Jenny's jewels. Hubs was supposed to be working and was more interested in the movie than his computer so I'm going to say it was interesting and was a decent way to pass some time.
Since it is once again after midnight, I will leave you with my new thing for the day. I actually have a couple I could relay to you but I'm going to go with the biggie. Hubs and I made our commitment to the Game Change campaign at our church today. Really we had already done it last Thursday but today was the official version. The amount will make us bleed. (You had to be there...). And I feel really good about that. I feel good that it gives me a chance to prioritize. It gives me a chance to make choices and honor my husband, my family and my Lord. I feel changed by the journey we went through to get to that number. I feel more peaceful. I give Game Change journey to commitment 9 out of 10 stars. What? I'm not going to be able to buy new jeans for like 3 years! That's why I gotta exercise like right now. I can't afford to outgrow these. It will be embarrassing on many, many levels but mostly the one where my thighs actually bust the seams. In public. Anywho. I can't wait to hear the final number of how much we raised. Don't you worry. I'll let you know. We find out next weekend. Just before Thanksgiving. And I will give thanks for all that our church will be doing in the name of love while eating at a Golden Corral restaurant so that everyone gets what they want...
I just got back from shopping. I know. Shocker. Me and Lady Gaga had some last minute mega sale-ness to attend to. She's my favorite shopping buddy. She's very patient when I have to go back and forth across the store when I forget stuff I already passed. Oh. I'm gonna tell you how that shopping trip breaks down right here and now! This is the part where Artie would raise his fingerless gloved hand in the hair and say "testify!" You should totally get that reference... At Kroger, I like to give my Kroger card after everything has scanned. It's cheap entertainment. So, after everything was rung up and before my Kroger card, my total was $249.xx. After she scanned my Kroger card, my total dropped to $155.xx. After my coupons, my total was $71.59. That's right. My grand total savings was $173.76 OR 71%. Imagine if I still didn't have to buy some pull-ups for that sweet skunk of mine. Bless his heart. He just can't hold his own in the night time. Literally. And also, I did buy some hummus, black olives, shredded carrots, an avocado, a cucumber AND some clearanced out Flat Outs for a totally killer sandwich for my lunch tomorrow. I have to eat with a bunch of four year olds so I'm feeling a little entitled to a lovely grown-up meal. So, that was an additional 10 buxish of splurge but my rationale is that Hubs DID say he wanted to have some hummus around. And those ingredients are mighty healthy. So, if I could just NOT eat every morsel of sweet in my house, move my arse a bit to lose a bit of it, AND eat these sandwiches all week, something good has GOT to happen. Right? right?
So, let's address those dangling threads from last night. I told you I would tell you my Christmas revelation. One of my favorite things to do when I am driving around at night alone in the car, is to leave the stereo off. When the weather warrants it, I like to have the windows down a bit and just seep in that moving silence - moving like I'm in motion. Not moving as in my arm hairs raise a little and I get a little verklempt. It's wonderful. Last night, however, I decided to keep the radio on. The radio has been locked to the same station since roughly Halloween. You know what I'm going to say next, don't you? That right! Christmas music! I know that Thanksgiving hasn't occurred yet, but I kind of don't care. I'm not big on Thanksgiving. I mean - I'm HUGE on giving thanks. I'm rather insistent on it and I try to make sure that the big dude upstairs is fully aware that I am cognizant of my blessed beyond measureness. But I don't really have feelings about Thanksgiving as a day. I guess because originally it was this romanticized holiday all about the pilgrims and the Indians coming together and having a feast with corn and gourds and turkey and cylindrically shaped gelled cranberries. I accept it as an excuse for family to come together. I certainly accept it as an excuse to eat lots of food. But I'm not terribly moved - moved like the arm hair version, not like in motion - or excited about the rest of it. Maybe I'm just such a rebel that I'm not into traditions that are kind of forced on me. For example. I don't like turkey. I'll eat some pressed turkey deli style product on a sandwich. I'll eat some turkey meat with some gravy on a sandwich. But turkey is just so precarious. You really do get what you pay for when it comes to those big tasteless birds. And no one wants to spend lots of money on a turkey! At least no one I spend Thanksgiving with. And I get that. But, truly, the more you spend on a turkey, the more succulent it is, the harder it is to dry out and the more tasty. But I have probably only had some such turkey once or twice in my life. Certainly enough times to know that there is a difference. But not enough times to treat it like a holy grail that I spend time pining for it until the next Thanksgiving arrives. So. For our Thanksgiving, we have ham. Honeybaked, preferably. But this year, we are providing Thanksgiving boxes for our church and we aren't going anywhere and we aren't hosting anyone. We are on a budget and I don't feel bound to abide by anyone's expectations of what should be on the table. I asked the kids tonight what they wanted for Thanksgiving dinner. Here are the answers: tacos, pizza, cheese, and the taco soup that she wouldn't touch for dinner tonight. She wouldn't eat it tonight, but she wants it for Thanksgiving. Whatever. I just wanted to know what they would say. Then Hubs wanted to "throw out some options". Turkey. Sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top. Apple pie. Lemon meringue pie. Chocolate meringue pie. Pumpkin pie. It would seem that he thought that his mother was coming to cook him some sort of Thanksgiving feast (complete with an entire pie buffet, apparently...) because not only do I not make any of those things, but I don't even LIKE any of those things. Not a one. I like my sweet potatoes with a crunchy pecan, praline kind of thing going on atop. I would eat a chocolate meringue pie if it was all I had to eat for my sweet tooth but I don't like meringue. So, I don't know what we are going to do. But I do know that Hubs is going to be HIGHLY disappointed. Anywho. I know that it's early yet to be listening to Christmas songs but I love Christmas. I love decorating and baking and magic. And I love celebrating the most audacious act of love ever - that God crammed Himself into little baby Jesus (oh, Talladega Nights, how I love thee...) and crashed into the earth into a smelly barn with itchy hay. And I'm all too happy to start celebrating all that as early as the beginning of November. So, I'm tooling around (shopping, you know.) and the windows are down and Christmas songs are playing and it's night. And do you know what I realized? White Christmases are highly over-rated. I looked at my temperature gauge in my car and it said 68 degrees and I thought about all those people in California and Florida and before, I felt sorry for them. Because I really believed that part of the magic of Christmas was the snow. But you know what else about snow?? It's flippin' cold!! I've had plenty of white Christmases. I don't need snow for Christmas. In fact, as I was enjoying those very favorable conditions, I found myself jealous. That's right. I was covetous of warm, clear Christmas. I want that. I want to wish people mele kaliki maka and not be quirky or charming because I'm saying something a little off beat. I'm saying it because I'm in freakin' Hawaii and that's what we all say!! And that, my firends, was my Christmas revelation.
Now, let's talk stuffing. I bought more last night. I know. I know! But it was apple stuffing. And I can't get that at the mega sale. I can't get the cranberry stuffing there either. It's not enough to have cranberries, you gotta have cranberries IN other Thanksgiving goods. And also, there were tear pads of coupons to try the apple stuffing. I could get boxes for 29 cents each after that coupon. And then, when I combined that with my buy 4 boxes of stuffing, get a fifth one free coupon, I'm not really sure how you could expect me to pass it up. No. Really. How do I pass that up?
I watched Repo Men last night. It was pretty cool. I try not to get caught up in the personal lives of celebrities. Actually, that is a total lie. I am all up in their business but I'm trying not to be. But I will tell you that I have trouble not judging a celebrity by the behavior and holding it against them when it comes to viewing their movies. Like. I'm definitely hard pressed to need to see anything with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie. I just don't respect them as people and the very public things they have done to hurt other people. I know there are two sides to every story. I know that it's not right for me to judge anyone. But I do and I don't like 'em. So, here comes Jude Law. He's a known skank. And maybe he's changed his ways. I hope so. I hope we all get the chance to. But I went ahead and watched his movie. Plus I love me some Forest Whitaker. That dude can act. Did you see him in The Shield? Did you see The Shield? You just gotta. On both. So, Repo Men was all science fictiony and pretty violent. I don't mind violence per se. It's all in the circumstances. For instance, I didn't mind it in Inglorious Basterds. I think because it was Nazi violence. I'm just sayin'. They were stupid. But the violence in Repo Men was a little tougher for me. And I don't have something I can point to and say - that's why. What was funny about it was that after we watched it, Hubs and I read the summary that Netlix had on it and it was completely different than the movie we watched. The movie was based on a book so maybe that summary was about the book version. Which is frustrating because I think you all know how I feel about the disassembly of the story that occurs when they turn a book into a movie. I will give Repo Men 6 out of 10 Jenny's jewels. Hubs was supposed to be working and was more interested in the movie than his computer so I'm going to say it was interesting and was a decent way to pass some time.
Since it is once again after midnight, I will leave you with my new thing for the day. I actually have a couple I could relay to you but I'm going to go with the biggie. Hubs and I made our commitment to the Game Change campaign at our church today. Really we had already done it last Thursday but today was the official version. The amount will make us bleed. (You had to be there...). And I feel really good about that. I feel good that it gives me a chance to prioritize. It gives me a chance to make choices and honor my husband, my family and my Lord. I feel changed by the journey we went through to get to that number. I feel more peaceful. I give Game Change journey to commitment 9 out of 10 stars. What? I'm not going to be able to buy new jeans for like 3 years! That's why I gotta exercise like right now. I can't afford to outgrow these. It will be embarrassing on many, many levels but mostly the one where my thighs actually bust the seams. In public. Anywho. I can't wait to hear the final number of how much we raised. Don't you worry. I'll let you know. We find out next weekend. Just before Thanksgiving. And I will give thanks for all that our church will be doing in the name of love while eating at a Golden Corral restaurant so that everyone gets what they want...
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