It's Turkey Day Once Again...

I’m astonished how quickly time passes. Is it already this time of year again? In two days is Thanksgiving. A few more days later we’ll move into the month of December and before you know it the holiday season is upon us. Followed by a brand new year. What ever happened to this year? Weren’t George and I not just in Germany, celebrating a new year? This year just flew by.

Astonishing!

On the other hand, I’m glad this is a short work week and a long weekend is coming up. We don’t have too many of those. George and I are staying home this time. The last few Thanksgiving weekends were celebrated in California, where we stayed with friends and enjoyed a wonderful meal and a great time at their wonderful home. Or having a couple of fun days at Disneyland. This time we decided to make it all traditional, with cooking at home, having family visiting us and the whole nine yards. Without the hoopla of all these football games though.

We got ourselves one big turkey. Over twenty pounds. And we got a great deal on it too. Just by accident did we see that one of the local markets had a one-day special where they sold brand name turkeys at incredible low prices. We literally saved up to 75% compared to all the other places. That may not have made that poor turkey’s day but it sure made ours.

Starting tomorrow, we’ll be cooking nonstop for two days. And we probably will be eating for the following two weeks. But we have family over to help us. George’s brother will drive in from California and stay with us for the weekend too. We all love turkey dinners with all the trimmings but it has been forever since we’ve actually cooked a big meal like that ourselves in our own kitchen. It’ll be a treat. Especially since George has the magical touch to turn everything into the most delicious meals.

It will be a fairly traditional fair. Since we are not your typical all-American family, traditional American foods are not a regular staple at our homes. We are far too adventurous for that...in a culinary sense. So this meal will be a very special treat for all of us. A huge turkey with gravy, corn bread stuffing, cranberries, mashed cream cheese potatoes with sauteed onion bits and leek, corn and mixed vegetables. Some cakes, plus apple and pumpkin pies for dessert. Of course, tons of appetizers and snacks before, during and after the big meal. Is this American enough?

Like I said, we’ll be cooking for two days and eat for two weeks.

However, with all this feeding frenzy going on we will not forget to be grateful for everything we have. Isn’t that the point of Thanksgiving? To take some time to reflect and be thankful for what one has and has accomplished? We don’t need some special day to be reminded to be thankful though. We are fully aware of how lucky we are and we recognize this everyday and count our blessings.

But it happens to be Thanksgiving and it will bring us a nice long weekend. So we’re definitely not complaining and we’re trying to make the most of it. We hope you are too.

Happy Thanksgiving, ya’ll.

Anno Domini 2 0 0 9

Well, here we are again.

Already a few days into a new year and the human race is back into the same old shenanigans. More escalation in the Middle East, the continuing denial of global warming, the never-ending political corruptions, the quiet uprising of Neo-Nazis all over Europe, that gays and lesbians in the United States are still considered third class citizens...and here’s a shocker...Britney Spears said something irrelevant.

Is the human race ever going to learn?

Apparently not. So let’s move on to more subtle intricacies of life’s pleasures before the human race completely blows this planet to smithereens.

Little pleasures such as vacation breaks over the holidays. We sure hope everyone out there enjoyed their holidays. Whether it was Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the winter solstice, another limited release of a Disney flick on Blu-ray, the celebration of little green men from Mars or simply nothing at all.

George and I decided to stay home and enjoy the peace and quiet. In between we fixed the leaky kitchen faucet; installed two new beautiful ceiling lambs; trimmed, pruned, weeded and cleaned our front and back yard; and made a new friend.


George enjoying the first morning of the new year.

Additionally, we also cooked and baked tons of food like there was no tomorrow. And may I say that our food can easily hold up against any of those so-called fancy-schmanzy top restaurants on the Las Vegas “Strip.” We made exquisite meat dishes, scrumptious casseroles, hearty soups and a delectable cake. There are so many leftovers in the freezer that will last us for months to come. Our holiday feast continues well into the new year.


Marmorkuchen - German-style marble cake.

The best one I made yet.

Not bad. At least we won’t starve during this recession.

Well, depending how long this economic downturn will last of course.

But we don’t care about that right now. This is about happy thoughts. Maybe some of you had a few days or even two weeks off like we did. Hopefully you were able to just enjoy the simple things in life, the companionship of a loved one and reflect on what’s really important. Like we did.

And you know what? Despite all the crap that’s happening in this country and around the world, we are doing pretty darn good. George and I may not be wealthy and own a bunch of useless things, but we still got it made. We have a comfy home, we both got jobs, we can put food on the table and we have each other. What more could one ask for?

I can’t help it. I’m ever the optimist.

So, this new year 2009 will be a good one. There, I said it! Damn the news and their gloom and doom reports. Even if everything around us does indeed fall apart and the human race is on a suicidal mission. I will always be there for George. We will still do our part to help the environment and reduce global warming. We will keep up our efforts to help achieve equal rights for everyone. We will be citizens of the world.

Yes, it all sounds way too corny. Cue in the violins, please.

But we actually believe that we all still can do good things for each other. Besides, negativity alone sure as heck is not going to accomplish anything. There’s already more than enough of that around the way it is.

We can make this a great year. It’s really all up to each and everyone of us. Whatever floats your boat to make it happen, whether it may be praying, baking a cake, having wild sex or simply showing some humanity. Let’s all pitch in and make this a great one.

Let’s extend these holidays.