SUNDAY FUNDAY NOVEMBER 22ND, 2020

 SUNDAY FUNDAY

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 22ND, 2020

HAPPY SUNDAY!!!  

At this juncture in the month, we are normally looking forward to NEXT THURSDAY - Thanksgiving.  

NOVEMBER MEMORIES

Thanksgiving was (in my memory) at my parent's house in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  My grandparents lived about two miles away (and we went there frequently for big dinners), but they joined us at “the White House” for this holiday.

My mother had an old “food processor” (that is, a hand-cranked food grinder).  It was heavy - cast iron?  Some kind of steel?  It clamped onto our kitchen table, and my job was to put cranberries into the grinder and occasionally a piece of orange peel and grind away.  We put a big pan on the floor as the cranberries would ooze a little and drip.  They were zesty and homemade and fresh. I wasn’t too big on eating cranberries then (I am better today).  

My sister especially liked the candied yams, so those were made early - complete with melted miniature marshmallows. (I think it was more sugar than the vegetable.)  I liked the green bean casserole (and still do).  Green beans (probably out of a can), with a can of cream of mushroom soup mixed in and topped with French’s French Fried onion rings.  

The turkey was, of course, the main focus of Thanksgiving dinner.  I wasn’t involved in cooking the turkey, but the aroma around the house was delectable.  My mother stuffed the turkey with dressing - I remember sage, and sausage, and bread crumbs.  She created her own bread crumbs by putting out slices of bread (I think just regular white bread) to get dry on a baking sheet and then we broke up the pieces to make the dressing.  My mother also made (so I think) two gravies - one with the giblets and one without (my sister and I didn’t like or want those giblets in our gravy).  And, of course, a mound of white mashed potatoes.  My father carved the turkey as his contribution to the effort. 

One additional item I almost forgot - Brown-and-Serve white buns - with oodles of real butter.  

It was quite the feast!!!  

And, yes, after such a huge dinner we tried to watch the Detroit Lions play football before the tryptophan put us to sleep in the living room.  Generally, the Dallas Cowboys had a later game on Thanksgiving but by then we were zonked out.  

And, eventually, PIE.  My grandmother made the pumpkin pie, my mother made apple pie.  Later in the afternoon, we had pie.  The grownups had coffee with the pie and there was a plate of cold turkey to snack on as well.  We could put Cool Whip on the pie.  I wasn’t much of a pumpkin pie eater, but I’ve learned to appreciate it more as I’ve grown up.

  

Sometimes there was a Thanksgiving Service at our Church (and the previous Sunday was also part of the celebration of the season).  I remember singing 

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing;
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!

***

And, now thank we all our God:

“Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices,

who wondrous things has done, in whom his world rejoices;

who from our mothers' arms has blessed us on our way

with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.”

***

In school, we made pilgrim hats and turkeys (by using our fingers) in art class.

It doesn’t seem to me that Black Friday was such a big deal there.  I’m thinking that weekend (Friday or Saturday) the University of Iowa generally played the University of Minnesota in football for the Floyd of Rosedale trophy.  (A big pig trophy). 

To me, Thanksgiving was a special American kind of day - celebrating the Pilgrims (although Jamestown was settled first) and Indians (Native Americans) gathering together.  Canada also has a Thanksgiving Day - but a month earlier (before Canada freezes over).  While Thanksgiving had little religious overtones, it seemed not to be as much religious as just “American”.  

Only a little tongue-in-cheek, I heard Garrison Keller talk of Thanksgiving in Lake Wobegon Minnesota a few years back (on A Prairie Home Companion) where now, they had to have separate meals for the gluten-intolerant, non-GMO and free-range turkeys, organic cranberries, and maybe even tofu turkey for the vegetarians in the family.  

How did you celebrate Thanksgiving?

NOVEMBER FUN AND GAMES

From: https://www.countryliving.com/diy-crafts/g4698/thanksgiving-games/ some game ideas:

Pumpkin checkers - use the miniature white and orange pumpkins to play checkers

Put the feathers on the turkey (a variation of pin the tail on the donkey)

Thanksgiving Family Feud - maybe with some of the historical aspects of thanksgiving  What did the pilgrims and Indians eat on that first thanksgiving?  When did Thanksgiving become the fourth Thursday of November?  Where did the Pilgrims come from (England or the Netherlands)? 

Thanksgiving charades - acting out something related to Thanksgiving.

Roll your sweet potato (or yam) with a spoon in a race.  The article says it is harder than it looks.

Gratitude game - what are you thankful for

And more (check out the link for some additional ideas)

LOGIC PROBLEMS:

_1. Shirley is cooking for her entire neighborhood.  How many turkeys did she have?

The number of turkeys is between 10 and 30

It is an odd number

The sum of the digits adds up to 10.

-2. Carol is having her family for Thanksgiving dinner (all well-spaced, of course)

The number is between 8 and 19

It is an even number

They will sit at three tables - with the same number at each table

How many are coming to Carol and David’s house?

-3. Orville and Nancy have been baking pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving.

Orville has made twice as many pies as Nancy

Together they have made 12 pumpkin pies

How many did each person make?

NATIONAL DAYS:

Saturday, November 21 - National Stuffing Day

Do you do stuffing with bread crumbs or with cornbread or some other form of stuffing?

Monday, November 23 - National Adoption Day

Do you know anybody who was adopted?  I have a good friend (and wife) who adopted two children.  They are fully grown with their own children.  It was a very loving home!!

Thursday, November 26 - THANKSGIVING

*****

NOVEMBER 22ND - SHORT STORY

I’m going to retell a story (probably a fable) from Fractured Fairy Tales (from the Rocky and Bullwinkle show). For those that don't know Rocky and Bullwinkle, they played on puns and contradictions (like Bullwinkle's secret cake recipe that was really a rocket fuel; Capt Peter Peachfuzz - who was wrong in everything - so if you did the opposite, you'd be right; Peabody (a scholarly dog) and his boy Sherman and his view on history with "Wayback machine" - where Peabody managed to save history; and the Fractured Fairy Tales where the storyline was close to the original but it took strange twists and turns.)

A fisherman is out in the ocean when he snags a mermaid.  The mermaid promises him three wishes if he sets her free.  Of course, he sets the mermaid free, and the mermaid says come back to my rock tomorrow and I will grant your first wish.

He rushed home and told his wife.  (As I remember the Fractured Fairy Tale version, she is large and bossy).  She says “You have to wish for a larger house for me”.

The next morning, he sets out and finds the mermaid and uses his first wish for a larger house for his wife.  The mermaid said, “It is granted”.

Back home, his wife is enjoying her big house, but then she notices bigger houses around her and demands that her husband, the fisherman, go to the mermaid and demands a huge palace with servants and fancy furniture.

The next morning, the fisherman goes out to the ocean and calls for the mermaid, who grants his wish.

When he returns, he is stopped at the gate by a servant who tries to keep him out - after all, he is a lowly fisherman.

His wife is enjoying the palace with servants and fancy furniture.  But, in a few days, she is dissatisfied.  She calls her husband and demands that he wish for his wife to be a queen with a huge kingdom.

He is dismayed and heads out to the rock.  The mermaid shows up again and reminds him that this is his last wish.

The mermaid knows that the wife has been demanding more and more.  

The fisherman uses his third wish “I only wish for my wife to be happy”.

This time upon returning home, it is the same old hovel from before he met the mermaid, but his wife is sweeping the floors and is so happy.  She hugs him and says, “I love you” to the fisherman (okay, some minor ‘editorial modifications’).

The moral is that being happy doesn’t require huge houses, money, and mansions, but being happy is a state of mind.  We can choose to be happy.  

This next week is Thanksgiving and then the rush of the Christmas/holiday season.  But, as we go through this next month-and-one-half, remember - we can choose to be happy.  Don’t let the negative around you, the materialistic nature of the next month get to you.  Remember to be serene and happy!!!

*****

So, my friends - what are you doing - in the spirit of Thanksgiving?  Are you going to enjoy the feast with your families, friends, or yourself?  

Be careful however you celebrate.  We’ve done a good job at avoiding the pandemic so far - let’s be healthy so we can be around for Thanksgiving 2021!!!  It seems like COVID is on the rise and we need to be cautious!!

May God bless you as you celebrate Thanksgiving.  May you give thanks for your blessings, and may you choose to be happy, to know love, and to share the love!!!

LOVE WINS!!!

HUGS!!

Karen