November 26, 2012
November 25, 2012
Get your Downton Abbey fix TONIGHT!
In this upcoming television special,
DOWNTON ABBEY REVISITED,
savor great moments from the series' first two seasons,
check out behind-the-scenes footage
and get a sneak peek at Season 3.
Tune in Sunday, November 25.
Picture Quotes for the Soul
I absolutely LOVE these!
I am a big fan of Holy Handouts!
November 24, 2012
November 23, 2012
Nothing says GRATITUDE like a Thanksgiving Burrito
It was going to be the very first time in 20+ years, I cooked the entire Thanksgiving dinner on my own. I am not counting the Thanksgivings we spent when our family lived in Australia or New Zealand for a few reasons.
1. When living in countries who are affiliated with Queen Elizabeth and have very English lifestyles, celebrating the beginning of America isn't exactly on the top of their to-do list. To some, we were just a bunch of hungry Americans foolishly paying, 80 dollars for a Turkey.
2. Even though I'm all for catching the spirit of the season and splurging on your family a bit over the holidays, but paying that much for a Turkey? I'll never have THAT much spirit. We cooked chickens and called them Gourmet Midget Turkeys.
3. While America spends November having cold or snowy weather - On the other side of the world the Aussie's and New Zealander,s are welcoming warm days at the beach. I had no desire to spend an entire day cooking in a house with no air conditioning just to serve my hot and sweaty family a fancy hot meal. We usually spent Thanksgiving at the beach. (*remind me to tell you sometime about how odd it is to celebrate the fourth of July with coats and scarfs on. So weird.)
4. I dont think our family went a single week, in the entire 7 years we lived overseas, without at least one dinner invitation. It was during those first few years that I realized it doesn't matter what kind of food is served - it's who we were with that mades my holidays perfect.
For these reasons, and many more, I embraced a much more forgiving Thanksgiving menu. In fact, one year we spent Thanksgiving day with our Maori friends. We played games and laughed for hours while our meal was wrapped in huge leaves, buried and cooking in the back yard. It was a Thanksgiving Hangi...and it was Delicious!
This year, Thanksgiving dinner was going to be a bit tricky because we recently moved and everything I needed to cook such a grand meal was buried somewhere in our storage unit. Maybe if the storage unit had stayed organized I would have been more motivated to spend the time and effort searching through each box. But it was far from organized. What began as mapped out system with everything in its place - now looks like "the room of requirement" from Harry Potter. It could take weeks to find what I needed! I needed a non-traditional plan for our dinner.
Plan A - dazzle the family with my super turkey-cooking skills. But I was missing pots and pans.
Plan B - go out and buy what we needed. It didn't take long to decide against purchasing items I already own. What to do?
Plan C formed last Friday when I was walking by the deli at the grocery store. Something smelled wonderful. The lady in the deli handed me a little plate with a mini turkey dinner sampler. I ate while she explained that I could order Harmon's Thanksgiving dinner already cooked and ready for me to pick up Thanksgiving day for around a hundred dollars.
Plan C - let someone else do all the work. Plan C was to spend the time normally spent in the kitchen, with my kids instead. Because of conflicting schedules, there would be only a couple of hours where my entire family could be together so, we went with it. Plan C would be worth every penny.
Our scheduled pick up time was 2:00pm. My husband and I stood in line with the other customers waiting to pick up their food. For about half an hour we all watched the complete chaos behind the counter at the deli. It was so bad, we started playing a game to pass the time. It was called, "guess who is in charge" and none of us won because we hadn't a clue. Time was wasting and no one in line was very happy. It was almost 3pm when finally we were all finally told that the delay was the Turkeys. The kid in the white apron said it was taking longer because they were waiting for the Turkeys to finish cooking. We were told it would be another hours. This was not good news. My husband took me home to finish getting ready for our guests and the he went back to the store. Saying I was stressed out is putting it mildly.
It was almost 4pm when my husband walked into the kitchen, having finally picked up our order. At 4:05 I discovered the pies were missing. At 4:06 I said a bad word.
At 4:25pm my husband returned from his THIRD trip holding 3 pies, but not the flavors I ordered. I said another bad word.
4:30 - family arrived.
4:35 - lifted the turkey out of the box, noticed more than half the bird was white instead of golden brown & the pop-up timer had not popped. I used my outdoor voice, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" This could not be happening.... Perhaps it was an optical illusion..... I grabbed a knife and my husband grabbed hold of the leg and pulled. The leg just kind of bounced back. I cut, saw raw turkey.
4:39 - said two bad words in one sentence.
We called the store. They were closed. We were instructed to come back in the morning.
On Thanksgiving day I took my kids to Del Taco. Can you imagine that first Thanksgiving Day with the pilgrims and the native Americans sitting around a table full of nachos and bean burrito's? Can you picture that scene in your mind? Well, freaking I can!
Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving.
10:00am. Talked to Dave, the Harmon's store manager on duty. Dave was nice. He apologized profusely. I told him it was a good thing the store closed early the night before because I was one seriously upset Pilgrim. I felt bad for Dave. He hadn't caused the mess, he had just arrived for work, heard what happened to the 2pm customers and then spent the morning dealing all the other unhappy turkey recipients as they trickled into the store. I asked Dave if he knew why on earth anyone would sell an obviously uncooked turkey, especially after making us all wait almost two hours past the pick up time? He had no idea. I felt like I had completely missed Thanksgiving.
10:20am - Walked out of the store having been refunded a bit more than I paid. I'll be cooking my own turkey next year even if I have to wrap it in leaves, bury it in a pit in the back yard and cover it with hot coals.
2. Even though I'm all for catching the spirit of the season and splurging on your family a bit over the holidays, but paying that much for a Turkey? I'll never have THAT much spirit. We cooked chickens and called them Gourmet Midget Turkeys.
3. While America spends November having cold or snowy weather - On the other side of the world the Aussie's and New Zealander,s are welcoming warm days at the beach. I had no desire to spend an entire day cooking in a house with no air conditioning just to serve my hot and sweaty family a fancy hot meal. We usually spent Thanksgiving at the beach. (*remind me to tell you sometime about how odd it is to celebrate the fourth of July with coats and scarfs on. So weird.)
4. I dont think our family went a single week, in the entire 7 years we lived overseas, without at least one dinner invitation. It was during those first few years that I realized it doesn't matter what kind of food is served - it's who we were with that mades my holidays perfect. For these reasons, and many more, I embraced a much more forgiving Thanksgiving menu. In fact, one year we spent Thanksgiving day with our Maori friends. We played games and laughed for hours while our meal was wrapped in huge leaves, buried and cooking in the back yard. It was a Thanksgiving Hangi...and it was Delicious!
Plan B - go out and buy what we needed. It didn't take long to decide against purchasing items I already own. What to do?
Plan C formed last Friday when I was walking by the deli at the grocery store. Something smelled wonderful. The lady in the deli handed me a little plate with a mini turkey dinner sampler. I ate while she explained that I could order Harmon's Thanksgiving dinner already cooked and ready for me to pick up Thanksgiving day for around a hundred dollars.
Plan C - let someone else do all the work. Plan C was to spend the time normally spent in the kitchen, with my kids instead. Because of conflicting schedules, there would be only a couple of hours where my entire family could be together so, we went with it. Plan C would be worth every penny.
Our scheduled pick up time was 2:00pm. My husband and I stood in line with the other customers waiting to pick up their food. For about half an hour we all watched the complete chaos behind the counter at the deli. It was so bad, we started playing a game to pass the time. It was called, "guess who is in charge" and none of us won because we hadn't a clue. Time was wasting and no one in line was very happy. It was almost 3pm when finally we were all finally told that the delay was the Turkeys. The kid in the white apron said it was taking longer because they were waiting for the Turkeys to finish cooking. We were told it would be another hours. This was not good news. My husband took me home to finish getting ready for our guests and the he went back to the store. Saying I was stressed out is putting it mildly.
It was almost 4pm when my husband walked into the kitchen, having finally picked up our order. At 4:05 I discovered the pies were missing. At 4:06 I said a bad word.
At 4:25pm my husband returned from his THIRD trip holding 3 pies, but not the flavors I ordered. I said another bad word.
4:30 - family arrived.
4:35 - lifted the turkey out of the box, noticed more than half the bird was white instead of golden brown & the pop-up timer had not popped. I used my outdoor voice, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" This could not be happening.... Perhaps it was an optical illusion..... I grabbed a knife and my husband grabbed hold of the leg and pulled. The leg just kind of bounced back. I cut, saw raw turkey.
4:39 - said two bad words in one sentence.
We called the store. They were closed. We were instructed to come back in the morning.
On Thanksgiving day I took my kids to Del Taco. Can you imagine that first Thanksgiving Day with the pilgrims and the native Americans sitting around a table full of nachos and bean burrito's? Can you picture that scene in your mind? Well, freaking I can!
Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving.
10:00am. Talked to Dave, the Harmon's store manager on duty. Dave was nice. He apologized profusely. I told him it was a good thing the store closed early the night before because I was one seriously upset Pilgrim. I felt bad for Dave. He hadn't caused the mess, he had just arrived for work, heard what happened to the 2pm customers and then spent the morning dealing all the other unhappy turkey recipients as they trickled into the store. I asked Dave if he knew why on earth anyone would sell an obviously uncooked turkey, especially after making us all wait almost two hours past the pick up time? He had no idea. I felt like I had completely missed Thanksgiving.
10:20am - Walked out of the store having been refunded a bit more than I paid. I'll be cooking my own turkey next year even if I have to wrap it in leaves, bury it in a pit in the back yard and cover it with hot coals.
Thanksgiving 2012 - Not exactly a picture perfect dinner but definitely memorable.
OMG!! SHABBY APPLE - Black Friday Deals!!
CLICK THE PICS TO GO SHOP NOW FOR EXCLUSIVE
BLACK FRIDAY
SPECIAL DISCOUNTS!!
Hope you had a very Happy Thanksgiving!
We are so excited about the Holidays and to celebrate we are having a SITEWIDE sale!! Save 20% off EVERYTHING on our site with code JOYFULSEASON at checkout.
Yes, you read right, EVERYTHING!
Sale ends 11/30/2012.
November 22, 2012
November 21, 2012
OMG!! SHABBY APPLE - Deals!!
I am so excited! Shabby Apple is having a Black Friday sale...not only that, it's a sale where I can get super cute clothes and amazing prices AND I dont have to stand in line for hours fighting the crowds! I'm not sure it gets much better than that! Click the pics below to check out all the deals and super gorgeous fashion just waiting to be sent right to your door! The deals for Black Friday dont start until then but you can see the other great deals now... Watch this space! At midnight after Thanksgiving dinner is long over, I will post the links to get the shopping for extra savings started! Until then......My favorites are:
Thanksgiving Funnies
"Here I am 5 o'clock in the morning stuffing bread crumbs up a dead bird's butt." -Roseanne Barr
Jim Gaffigan: "Thanksgiving. It's like we didn't even try to come up with a tradition. The tradition is, we overeat. 'Hey, how about at Thanksgiving we just eat a lot?' 'But we do that every day!' 'Oh. What if we eat a lot with people that annoy the hell out of us?'"
THANKSGIVING - AMERICAN - quotes
- The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. -Benjamin Franklin
- The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. -H.U. Westermayer
- There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is. -Albert Einstein
- You can only govern men by serving them. The rule is without exception. -Victor Kiam
- I don't have a solution, but I certainly admire the problem. -Ashleigh Brilliant
- There are three faithful friends, an old wife, an old dog, and ready money. -Benjamin Franklin
- Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad. -Norm Papernick
"Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants."
Johnny Carson: "Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often."
May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner-Stay off your thighs!
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner-Stay off your thighs!
"Thanksgiving is the day when you turn to another family member and say, 'How long has Mom been drinking like this?' My Mom, after six Bloody Marys looks at the turkey and goes, Here, kitty, kitty." - David Letterman
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