Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time of year... while Christmas has been peaking around the corner earlier each year, Thanksgiving marks the official beginning of the holiday season for most Americans. This morning, while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the country literally marked the beginning of the season with the arrival of Santa at the end of the parade... so... Let the shopping begin!!!

Other hints have been showing up lately... our development hung the lights, the local market has all of the holiday wrapping and baking supplies at the front, all off the holiday catalogs have begun to arrive, and HSN has begun their Christmas shows...

The Parade this morning was really quite sad. WAY too many Broadway shows, bands were OK, floats were OK...

Now, Mom and Poppy were in Little Rock for Thanksgiving this year. Ann spent the holiday with Gavin and co, Cary and co were in the desert, Betty/Lo were together at Lo's house... so it was just Dad and I. Dad cooked the turkey, did the stuffing, green beans, and gravy. I made the mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and jello.

Jello? One might ask, jello?!?!? Traditionally, Betty is the MASTER of the "Crunchy Nutty Jello" dish in our family, served at both Thanksgiving AND Christmas. However, as the years have progressed, the dish has changed twice and now there are three versions. The original is orange jello with banana slides and mandarin oranges in the jello, mini-marshmellows on top... that is refrigerated and then cool whip is applied when firm. On top of the cool whip, some sort of nuts are sprinkled. Version Two has been around for several years and was in response to several members of the family not liking the nuts, thus it is the same as the original but without the nuts. Version Three is the newest, my own preference (actually, I think I am the only one that likes it, but sometimes the kids get stuck with it too) is to have it without nuts OR oranges. That is the version I made.

To further complicate things, some members eat it with dinner (on the same plate or a separate plate) and others prefer it post dinner but pre pie. Most everyone likes to snack on the leftovers.

What I am MOST thankful for this Thanksgiving? I suppose all of the traditional things- family, friends, life, school, opportunities, horses, liberty... but this year, I am SO THANKFUL for Smiley's well being. I am SO THANKFUL that the doctors did what they did, worked as hard as they did, that Smiley was a tough as he is, that I could be with him. I am SO THANKFUL Smiley is alive and well, recovering, and prospering.

I will see Smiley tomorrow. He is still at Alamo, VERY stable and doing well, recovering. Today marks exactly eight weeks post op. He looks FANTASTIC.

I am off to eat some pumpkin pie...