Is the Chanukah Turkey Coming?

When I was a wee one I used to talk about Chanukah Claus which scandalized all the nice Jewish ladies in the neighborhood but Nana thought it was funny and that's all that mattered to me.

Nana would have loved cooking all sorts of Russian delights along with a turkey.

I am thankful for Hope and Athena.

Hope loves 'Sophia The First' and enjoys dressing like her. The Christmas Elf made her appearance that morning.

When Hope was an infant my favorite thing was her crooked smile. With Athena it is her endless look of surprise. Sometimes her mouth forms a perfect O and sometimes her eyes get really big. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you get both.

We call this photo 'Jeffrey in a Tutu' - she looks so much like her Dad.

Happy Chanukah my friends. Happy Thanksgiving too. 

You all hold a special place in my heart.

I posted my favorite colors of Fall over at The Photo Blog The rain and wind have pretty much cleared the trees now.

Thanksgiving

After my town survived Hurricane Sandy it seems even more important to be grateful.

I'm grateful for the safety of my family.

I'm grateful for the people who always show up to help

I'm grateful for Siren and Isadora. They brighten any day and love unconditionally.
In their own way of course - they are cats.

I'm grateful for all of you. I realized it again when I couldn't share the storm with you and I worried about you worrying about me.

Most of all I'm grateful for Hope.

And on we go ...

The Thanksgivng That Wasn't

So I headed out late Thanksgiving morning to make the delightful schlepp North on the turnpike to join my son and DIL and Hope for dinner. We were all meeting at Uncle Mike's restaurant.

I figured leaving 3 hours for the 90 minute trip would be enough. Gassed up the car, got a bottle of cold water and hit the not so open road.

I hate the NJ Turnpike. It is an homage to pollution and filthy sprawl and it forces one to make terrible choices. Do I take 'cars only' and get stuck with all the folks who can't merge or decide to create an extra exit lane; or do I hit the 'diversity' side and take my chances with exhausted truckers missing their homes for the holiday and feeling they have little left to lose.

I went with the truckers. I identify.

With the windows wide open and the radio blasting I felt like ...

ahhhh embracing my white trash roots.

It wasn't long before I began to feel queasy and feverish. Could I be making myself carsick?

It is really hard to drive from this position.

I tried to push on for a few more miles but the feeling was getting worse and I saw that the traffic ahead was getting thicker.

I decided to turn back to home.

It's so simple to find the Turnpike South when exiting from the North side ...

I was near some industrial something, nothing but iron gates and beware signs and rough road and lots of these ...

It had rained for days so the shoulder was nothing more that deep ruts full of water. I wanted to pull over and hit 'Home' on my GPS so that the bitch would stop screaming 'recalculating'

After what seemed like an eternity I found South and made my way home. Traffic was a horror and I finally got home nearly 4 hours after I had left. I felt like death by this point.

I had some leftover turkey and fixins from the meal I had made for the VFW guys but just looking at it made me heave so I shredded some turkey for the kitties and watched them feast while I laid on the sofa wrapped in a blanket sipping ginger ale and munching dry toast. I did get kitty kisses which made me smile - turkey breath and all.

My son explained my absence by telling everyone I must have caught the bug that Hope had earlier in the week. Hearing her name and my name and the word 'sick' put together has caused Hope to ask.

"I make you sick Nana?"

She knows she doesn't.

AM Talk with Hope and Nana

Hope and I spend a lot of early mornings together. She's accustomed to waking at 6 AM for school so when she has the sniffles or if school is closed she hangs out with me when Mommy leaves for work. Daddy is on the night shift again and doesn't get home until after 8 AM.

Hope and Nana do the morning talk between 6 and 8 AM.

I shot some short videos of our antics - 18 of them to be exact.

You can view any or all or none at MY YOUTUBE PAGE
If you have trouble with the main link try THIS ONE, it should take you to one of  the videos and then you can see the others.
They were shot on November 9

A few screenshots from Nana's Scorcese-like films ...

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

~Thornton Wilder

 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm thankful for so many things; my home, my cats, my friends and neighbors, my photography, DVR, George Clooney, my Congressperson is not a Tea Partier, my blog community, my ...

I am most thankful for Hope ...

I'm thankful that when I ask her "who loves you?", this is my answer ...

“Hope is the dream of a soul awake”
French proverb

I'm thankful that my son has embraced being a Dad with love and kindness; strength and humor. He missed his own father so much and as a child spoke of one day being "the best Dad any kid could have" ...

“It is never too late to have a happy childhood”
Tom Robbins

I wish you many little things to be thankful for.

And I wish for you at least one thing that melts your heart and fills your soul and makes your spirits soar.

Pet Pride: Siren Discusses Thanksgiving Day

Hi everybody! I haven't posted in a few weeks, I've been very contemplative. At times I simply meditate.

The top of Mom person's dresser is my mountain top. Used to be the curio but that has been shut down by the authorities (Mom person) for safety reasons.



The infiltrator is still here ...



I was hoping she was just a foster but apparently they're keeping her. I should have known better than to get my hopes up, Mia is still here ...



Look how she settles in. Sickening.

Anyway

This week was another one of the person holidays. This time there was a lot of food -



- which is a good thing - but there was also a lot of persons, and that's not so good.

Mom person keeps me away from the persons. Some say they're allergic, some don't like cats. One of the allergics says I'm "too wild". Give me a break!

Mom person rubs against me and then hugs the allergic bitch. I love her for that.

So on Thanksgiving I went to my mountain retreat ...



The infiltrator was sucking up to the persons. She dresses up for everything ...



I swear, everything is a theme with that one.

And she is so easily amused by their offerings ...



Have some dignity!

My plan was to spend the day on the mountain. I knew Mom person would be bringing turkey later and her person guilt would mean lots of extra attention.

There's always a wrinkle in every one of my plans.

The path to my mountain goes through Mia land. Although she sleeps 23 hours a day she always manages to be awake when I'm around and she takes issue with my travels ...



She gets herself all twisted (she's daft ya know) and immediately turns to Mom person ...



Ridiculous! By the time Mia reacts (she's daft ya know) I'm already up there.

I don't have to put up with this. I'm at peace within my core.

Talk to the tail ...



PET PRIDE

Thanksgiving Eve Smorgasbord

The images in the previous post came from ...



what can I say, it amused the hell out of me.

I cooked most of yesterday. The pasta boiled and the meatballs sizzled ...



And the Ziti came together nicely ...



Hope went to the grocery this morning. The store was very crowded and busy ...



So Nana read her stories and then we played with her faces doll and then we sang songs and then we played supergirl and then we watched the squirrels from the window and then we changed diapers and then we changed clothes and then we had our bottle and then we changed everything again and then we sang quiet songs and then ...



I wish you all the peace and love I feel when Hope presses her face close to mine as I sing to her. I wish you all the joy I feel when she smiles.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Traditions

It has been a Thanksgiving tradition for us to open our home to any and all for Thanksgiving dinner. When I managed a lot of people at the ‘evil empire corporation’ many of the people who worked with me joined us. One year there was a fire in an apartment building behind our house and we invited everyone to eat with us. Many of my son’s co-workers join us each year. Seems someone is always far from home or newly divorced or just alone.

This year we’re a little scaled back since it is Hope’s first Thanksgiving and the number of people on both sides of the family who wish to gaze upon her are many.

I’m making baked ziti for my VFW buddies. I’ll drop off pans of it on Tuesday and the guys will take it home with them. On Thanksgiving night I’ll drop by and see a few of my favorites – especially one gentleman who doesn’t leave home much anymore – I’m bringing dinner plates for him and his nurse.

It has always been my experience that we feel the fullest when we share with others.

The ‘World Food Programme’ has a wonderful thing that anyone can do. You can donate to feed people in the name of anyone – you then add that person’s name and photo to their website and send them a card telling them about it. Check it out HERE

Feeding America has a food pantry locator. Just CLICK and enter your zip. If you need food or have food to share you’ll find the pantry closest to you.

When my son was younger we usually worked at a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving. We had some of our best holidays those years.
VOLUNTEER MATCH can help you find a place.
Just go to search and enter your zip code and the keyword Thanksgiving.

I know many of us are busy with family but we can still help. Just click HERE and help those who sponsor the site feed hungry people.

Last but so far from least please check out THIS post by my wonderful friend Lisa, The Mountain Photog. It’s all about a great way to spend the day after Thanksgiving.

And as always, there is Hope …

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls. ~Aesop

This is my first Thanksgiving in Blog-Land and I got to thinking about how grateful I am for all of you.

Through you I see myself in new ways ...



In different ways ...



No subject is too much ...



Or too little ...



I love when we put our heads together ...



And lovingly share ...



You give me the strength to hang on ...



You remind me to be kinder and gentler with myself and with others ...



You inspire my nurturing spirit ...



And remind me that we are all more the same than we are different ...



So at the risk of being overly sentimental I hope you all know that I say ...



And on Thanksgiving or any other day as well remember that ...

MAY YOU ALL HAVE ENOUGH PLUS A WEE BIT MORE