Wednesday, November 27, 2024

THANKS For The Hodgepodge

Welcome to our Thanksgiving edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for the blogger before you. I'm truly grateful for all who participate here each week and for the friends I've made, both online and in real life, via my little corner of the Internet. 

From this Side of the Pond
1. Talking turkey...are you cooking the turkey this year? Does ham belong on a Thanksgiving day menu? When it comes to gravy do you pour it over your whole plate, skip it altogether, or land somewhere in between? Cranberries-homemade or jelled right out of the can? Do you look forward more to the main course, the savory sides, or the desserts? 

*I know there are at least a couple of bloggers who participate here who live outside the US and won't be celebrating Thanksgiving. If that's you feel free to adapt the questions to your December (or any) holiday meal.

I'm not cooking the turkey this year. We'll be celebrating with my daughter and son-in-law, and he'll smoke  the turkey on the grill. He's got skillz. I love ham and am not opposed to having one at Thanksgiving as long as there's also turkey. I've never served ham at Thanksgiving, but my son-in-law's family always has both, so we're having both this year too. 

 As far as gravy goes, I'm not a huge gravy/sauce person. I like to keep it light. I like gravy on my turkey and maybe just a tiny bit on the dressing but my plate definitely won't be swimming in it. I like both homemade and straight out of the can cranberry sauce and we'll have both this year. I definitely look most forward to the savory sides, with dressing being my fave. 

2. Holiday movies...tell us your favorite and what it is about the film that makes you love it. Is it the film itself or a memory it stirs? 

White Christmas. Partly because I love the story and the music and especially the dresses (swoon!), but also because my girls used to love to recreate the Sisters song whenever we watched, and that's a sweet memory. Daughter1 might have even sung the first line of that song in the toast she made for Daughter2's wedding. Pass the tissues please. 

3. favorite way to give back and help others? 

I volunteer in a local soup kitchen every week and I really enjoy that. We make a hot lunch and I enjoy the team I work with and interacting with the folks who come in. It's generally the same crowd so you get to know some of them a little bit. It's not my reason for doing this, but one of the effects this weekly task brings is the way it shifts my perspective about so many things in my own life. 

Besides the soup kitchen we support several organizations with our dollars and our prayers too. Samaritans Purse, World Vision, Compassion, Young Life, and St. Judes. I also like to donate the cost of an ultrasound to pregnant moms considering abortion. Seeing and hearing their baby's heartbeat is often a game changer. 

4. Name a place or setting you encountered this month that made you feel grateful. 

We had friends visit a couple of weeks ago and the Saturday weather was sheer perfection. The sky was a brilliant blue and we were outside most of the day. 

There's something about a beautiful sunshiny blue sky day that stirs my soul. Beauty in the great outdoors stirs up feelings of gratitude for me. 

5. Knowing what you know today, if you could redo yesterday what would you do differently? 

I'm answering these on Tuesday so yesterday was Monday. Would I do anything different? Yes, and I'm just gonna leave it at that. 

6. Spill your own random thought here. 

Let the games begin...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

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19 comments:

  1. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

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  2. You support some great organizations! My husband and I were just talking about the one that provides ultrasounds to pregnant woman- some of the podcasts that I listen to advertise for donations and I think we will start donating to that organization. On a different note, I have been doing ham and turkey the past few years when I have hosted Christmas. I love having two kinds of meat! Now I need a guy in my life into smoking meats. I have floated the word to my husband but he is not taking the bait :(... Happy Thanksgiving- thankful for friends online, especially those who come up with good questions each week :).

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  3. Happy Thanksgiving! I'm just putting my cranberries in to simmer too.

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  4. Happy Thanksgiving Joyce, I am thankful for our blog friendship.
    My favorite is dressing too. :-)
    I am light on the gravy.
    We have never made ham at Thanksgiving. I do know of a family that makes a beef and a pork roast for Thanksgiving.
    White Christmas ... oh yes!!! My favorite too.
    Have a wonderful holiday.
    Carla

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  5. Sounds like you will have a lovely day. Enjoy your meal. White Christmas is a great movie. I watch that one also before Christmas. Cute that the girls would sing "Sisters." That is lovely that you volunteer. The others that you support are great organizations. That photo is a beautiful setting. The cranberries look delicious. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

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  6. My cranberries will slide from the can!
    Beautiful area you live in. I’d love to serve in a shelter’s soup kitchen! Happy Thanksgiving 🦃

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  7. Great programs you support in your answer to the 3rd question. Ham on the menu will be a first for us this year but thank goodness it doesn't replace the turkey! Hooray for son-in-law who is willing to take on the big bird! Happy travels to you as you travel to family on T-day. Thankful for you and it has been a pleasure to see your family grow!

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  8. Soup kitchens are a great place to serve!! Enjoy every moment with your family.

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  9. I like to watch Christmas With the Franks. All the other movies are good, too, but this one still makes me chuckle. Happy Thanksgiving!

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  10. Correction to my previous comment: Christmas With the Kranks (not franks!!!).

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  11. I liked your answers, I hope you have an enjoyable and safe Thanksgiving

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  12. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! Thanks for another fun Hodgepodge. Love to you and all.

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  13. What a blue sky !! I am another person when the sun is shining !!

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  14. Hope you have a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving!

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  15. Happy Thanksgiving from Plymouth where it all began :)
    LOVE your answer to the holiday movie cause that's a couple of the same reasons. My sister Joy and I sang along to Sisters OFTEN and now my own 2 girls do this.
    I'm also a former crisis pregnancy counselor and parenting skills instructor for a faith based pregnancy center. When I spent 5 years there teaching and counseling, I wish I had thought to pay for a woman's ultrasound or at least contribute to it....you're so right that it's often a game changer.
    I also support several of the same organizations as you. In fact a good friend of mine, a younger mom, is a local advocate for World Vision and she's alway trying to get me to consider it.
    HAPPY THANKSGIVING

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  16. We are smoking our turkey this year too - it's on the grill/smoker right now, in fact. We always have our cranberries right out the can, but I forgot to mention in my post that my boys came up with the idea of using an apple slicer to cut up the cranberry jelly and now they do that every year! LOL
    White Christmas is my favorite holiday movie too. How sweet that your girls used to sing the "sisters" song.
    Happy Thanksgiving!!

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  17. I love the ode to White Christmas in the wedding toast! Those are some great organizations to support and hope y'all had a good Thanksgiving!

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  18. Oh, for #5 you meant LITERALLY yesterday! Ha, ha! You can't beat White Christmas, for sure. There's an old theater in town that always plays it on the big screen. At least they used to; I'm assuming they still do. (I should check that out)

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  19. I'm finally getting around to visiting a few of my favorite blogs after a long holiday weekend with our kids and Littles! The song "Sisters" from White Christmas is our favorite, too! Our girls break out into their own version (including choreography) when it comes on and we love singing the harmony when "Snow" is sung on the train! There are so many beautiful moments in that movie!

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