There is always, always something to be thankful for

What happened to Thanksgiving? I saw this comic on Facebook and had to immediately share it with others!

In my house Christmas decorating does not start until December. The only thing I might do a little early is pick up some presents (to save a lecture from my husband about the amount of money I spend in December) so I can spread out the spending! 

I saw Christmas items up in stores before Halloween and Black Friday has creeped into Thursday at many stores. Retail is taking over time with our families to enjoy talking, laughing, unbuttoning pants because we ate too much, and random naps from the turkey. But I cannot just blame the stores, they are reacting to the supply and demand system our society is built on. It would not pay for them to be open on Thanksgiving if no one was there, but the problem is - there are people there to get the deal. We are helping to create the monster. Why is saving a few dollars more important to us then being with the ones we love? If everyone stayed home there would be no reason for stores to be open.

 But instead I see stories on the news about women camping out at Best Buy 20+ days before Black Friday (how do you afford to buy anything if you are not working for 20+ days?)  and the woman who K-Mart is going to fire because she is refusing to work on Thanksgiving to be with her family. (I know there are many jobs that work holidays - including my husband the dairy farmer who works 365 days a year as the cows don't know it is time for turkey - and I am sure those people would like to be home with family too, so why are we creating more reasons to break into family time.)  When will it end? When will we stay at home to be with family instead of pretend we are saving money. (You know a sale is only marking it down so they don't make AS much, but don't kid yourself they are still making a profit) 

We have forgotten the real reason the Pilgrims and Indians sat down together to enjoy a homegrown meal - they were thankful to have the food and friendship. 

The choice is yours - help big business or stay home and love the ones you are with. What if everyone took the money and time they were going to waste in line and spent it to help a needy family or serve Thanksgiving dinner at a homeless shelter. Just imagine the impact of that. 

The 'tail' end - What are you thankful for this fall season? 

Sweet Treats

I have meant to get on and post this for two weeks, but things have been a little busy around my house. We are getting ready for the holidays, I have been working on Christmas cards, letter, and making gifts, my dad gave me my Cricut Expression Christmas present early (which took up about three days of time trying to get set up, experiment with, and use) my Internet somehow started to have advertising pop-ups all over, and my laptop suddenly stopped talking to the wireless printer (an of course my husband has waited until December to print of information needed for tax prep and needs it now!) so I have spent lots of time on the computer creating and trying to get everything working properly.

Almost every year since before my husband and I were married we have gotten together with his family to make cookies for the Christmas holiday. It started out as just a small little afternoon gathering to let the kids have fun cutting out sugar cookies and has grown into a whole weekend of baking, cutting, decorating, dipping, and packing the goodies up to share. My sister-in-law even mixes and cooks a few days before to prepare for the weekend.

Each year I pick a new recipe to try (and usually flop) for the weekend. With the invention of Pinterest this has grown easier to find, but harder to choose just one to try. This year I tried two. One was a simple wreath decorating idea with a shortbread cookie and the other was called a hot cocoa cookie. I am happy to say I did okay. The hot cocoa cookie did not look just like the Pinterest version, but it was okay and I managed to only brown the marshmallow on top, not burn it like I have been known to do with S'Mores brownies. So now I think I have a new recipe to add to the festivities.

The cookies are nice to have and share, but the best part of the weekend is opening up our home to family and having the time with them. We have been doing it the first weekend in December for a few years now so the women bake and the men go deer hunting and come in for lunch and cookie dough for a break from the cold. My girls get to spend time with their aunts, uncles, and cousins and learn about baking (which is something I do occasionally, but not as often as my husband wants or as good as my sister-in-laws.) It is a tradition that I hope continues with our family for years to come.

The 'tail' end - comment about some fun holiday activities you do with your family to celebrate the togetherness of the season.

I am also posting some collages I made on Smilebox to show the fun we have :)