It finally hit me last night.  I am always really emotional around this time of year. My birthday is coming up…it shares the day Kennedy was asassinated…Oh, there is a happy birthday image for you! Seeing a bullet go through a Presidents head!  And may I say, that is the only thing I ever seem to hear about on that particular day! UGH! While Kennedy plays a part in my late-November blues…it is not the biggest part!

My blues center more around Thanksgiving…I hate the food! My Dad’s all-time favorite meal was Thanksgiving dinner and it seemed like we ate that dinner for every holiday and whenever turkey was on sale, or whenever my Dad was hungry for turkey.

But what finally hit me last night, while in the middle of an “ugly cry”, was that what I hated most was the dysfunction of my family…and nowhere was it more apparent than during Thanksgiving. You see, my Mom had a drinking problem. It was like one of those CareUnit commercials where an elephant walked through a family home and everyone did what they could to pretend it wasn’t there. My Dad was a classic enabler and would get crabby and depressed whenever the family was coming over…My brother thinks my Dad was clinically depressed and in retrospect I have to agree! But one Thanksgiving in particular was especially horrendous. My Mom ended up at the emergency room with the back of her head cut open requiring stitches to close it…and it was a direct result of something I did. I remember wishing I was dead…ahhh teen angst!

It dawned on me that was just bubbling under the surface causing apprehension…waiting for some big drama to occur. Hell, I probably have caused drama, in a self-fulfilling prophecy, kind of way in the past as a result.  What is it “they” say…the first step to solving a problem is acknowledging that you have one?

Hi, my name is Pam, and I come from a dysfunctional family and Thanksgiving is a very hard time of year for me.

And what a Christmas it was! As usual, it’s early December 26th and I am up, long after everyone has retired, and am reflecting on the day(s). Every year I am amazed at the speed at which the year has passed and how quickly the Holidays snuck up on me. How can I say “snuck” when I know Christmas is on the same day every year? I don’t know if it’s complacency or what…but I feel less prepared for the arrival of Christmas every year.

The Family was generous to a fault! But like most parent’s I think I most enjoy surprising my son with his heart’s desire…this year it was a Play Station 3 and games…he’s been walking on a cloud ever since opening what Santa brought him. His 12th birthday is on Tuesday and I will have the joy of giving him something else he will love and isn’t expecting.

This Christmas was hard because of missing my Mom and Dad. They’ve been on my mind all day and I’ve been on the verge of tears as a result, OK, maybe past the “verge” a few times.  Then my darling brother, Porter, sent a beautiful video of my Mom as a gift. Which made me miss her all the more!  Somehow he knew I needed to see and hear her today…hard as it was.

As I reflect I am amazed at how blessed I am. I have an embarrassment of riches in the form of family and friends. I love and am loved by so many people…that is the true Joy of life and am so happy to be reminded today and every day.

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a Joyous Christmas and that it carries you every day of this and every year.

We finished with the Basketball Season for the 6th graders, then between studying for tests (David’s), work, and getting ready for the holidays…it seems there is never enough time to do the stuff I want to do. Add to that the stupid things my laptop it doing now a days, and I’m totally hosed.  I need to get it into repair, but that’s in Bismarck, which is a drive I prefer not to make when the roads are icy!

I need to finish making Christmas presents.  Once again, “best laid plans…” and I didn’t get some of them finished in time to send and arrive by Christmas…there is always next year for those…right???  I still have time to finish the projects for the folks who will be here for Christmas. In the meantime I need to bake goodies, keep up daily chores, OH and cook and CLEAN for the company we will be having.  I look at the calendar and think…9 days left, then I stop and think 9 DAY LEFT!!!! Thankfully between now and Christmas I only have to work 4 days so if I can quit procrastinating, I should be fine…HA!

Actually, if I were really smart I would be taking advantage of my current state of insomnia and would be knitting or baking or something more productive than playing on the computer!  Oh well, tomorrow is a day off…I can catch up of my sleep between loads of laundry…ROFL!

If I don’t post again before the holidays…MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Last year, for Thanksgiving, it was just Brian, David, Kenny and I. The meal was chicken rather than turkey and all the side dishes were new recipes.  I’m realizing that I am not one for “traditions”…I seem to always be on the lookout for “new” and “different”.  With that in mind, I suggested something different for today.

I suggested that we have soup for dinner. I volunteered to make 2 different soups, Sonya was going to make one and so was Rochell.  I was also going to bake fresh bread, and a couple of pies. The idea was suggested as a lark, until everyone surprised me and said it was a great idea. WOO HOO!

Fast forward to Wednesday morning when I wake up with a migraine and a terribly sore throat. David had been home all week with Strep Throat…and was kind enough to share it with me. So much for Thanksgiving dinner!  Rochell and Sonya sent some soup over…which was greatly appreciated.

Thanksgiving 2010 did not go as planned, but that’s OK…we still have tons to be thankful for and we are, every day.

Brian and I hosted Christmas Eve last night. Kenny, Michele, Jake, and Michele’s Mom, Betty joined us, Rochell, Gigi, and Sonya. I’d thought it would be nice to have a couple of pots of soup on the stove as well as some freshly baked bread for dinner. I had also been amassing some homemade goodies to serve, such as my Mom’s version of Chex Mix, Oreo Bon-Bons, and Almond Roca.

We opened gifts and laughed all night long.  That was the truly enjoyable part, that there was so much laughter.  Gigi looked at me towards the end of the night and said it was the best Christmas Eve she’d ever had.

The wind was howling as our party came to an end last night…a blizzard in the forecast. When David woke everyone up for Christmas Morning at 9am, a blizzard was in effect.

We had more presents to open since Santa had stopped by. And since no one could get out of their driveway due to the blizzard we decided to postpone Christmas Dinner until Sunday when Danielle and Cameron return to Mott.

Our Christmas day was spent lazing by the TV, snuggled under blankets, or napping in bed, or playing new games Santa delivered, or reading new books received the night before. Plenty of leftovers were snacked on, pop cans opened, and dishes dirtied…and it couldn’t have been better if we had planned it.

We had a MARVELOUS first WHITE Christmas in Mott, ND…I’ll be looking forward to Christmas 2010.

Here is wishing everyone’s Christmas was marvelous!

It is a fantastic book…something that will allow me to do more experimentation.  One of the sections in the book talked about brines. As much as Bri and I enjoy watching Food Network, I’d heard of brining turkeys before, but wondered it would or could be done with chicken. This book answered the question and also gave me a GREAT brine recipe for chicken which I used on the chickens I roasted today.

I don’t think I will ever cook poultry again without brining it first! What a difference it made…juicy and moist throughout, especially the breast meat, and the skin was really pretty!

I wondered if I could still use the drippings for gravy. After some research on the web, last night, I found several articles that said if you did want to make gravy to rinse the bird thoroughly before roasting, which I did.

The drippings made a very rich gravy, that looked more like beef gravy than chicken.  It was so flavorful and definitely did not need any additional seasoning.

I also wanted to try Brussels Sprouts this year. I’m not much on cooked cabbage so I never Brussels Sprouts never appealed to me. I couldn’t find any fresh sprouts so I decided to substitute fresh broccoli in the recipe and man, it was good…different, but just yummy. So much so that when I found myself hungry again a mere 6 hours after our Thanksgiving Feast it was the broccoli that I went for…LOL!

My brother-in-law Kenny was here for dinner and he seemed to really enjoy the dinner and was hoping for another non-traditional Holiday meal again in the future…hint, hint.  He had me laughing.

Who would have thought that taking on Thanksgiving dinner for my family would give me such joy?? Certainly not me! I have to give the new kitchen all the credit in that department, I guess.

With that I want to close with blessings to all my wonderful friends and family whom I love so much…Life is SO much BETTER having you as a part of it.  Same can be said for my puppies who bring me nothing but joy and laughter on a daily basis…Life is good!

• 2 whole chickens that have sat overnight in a lemon-herb brine
• Gravy
• Hashbrown Casserole
• Roasted Broccoli with Pistachios
• Mom’s Sausage Stuffing (in an pan)
• Jellied Cranberries out of a can…Brian insisted
• Roasted Yams
• Pumpkin Cheesecake

It was originally going to be just the 3 of us so there wasn’t any pressure to be terribly traditional.  Brother-in-Law, Kenny, will be joining us because his wife will still be out of town…when I found out he was going to be alone, I was glad to invite him, but did feel the need to warn him that it wasn’t going to be a “traditional” Thanksgiving dinner…I suspect with the wife gone for the better part of two weeks; any meal he didn’t have to make himself, is a good meal.

I know Brian and David are looking forward to our little non-Traditional Thanksgiving…I’m sure both will be helping out in the kitchen…I will be anxious to post my results.

Halloween in Mott is very different than what I am used to. The local weekly paper that comes out every Monday came out last week with an odd boxed blurb on page 2:

Trick-or-Treating from 4pm to 6:30pm (or after the football game) Dinner to follow for those in costume at the High School Cafeteria

Hmmm…I didn’t quite follow this so I asked a local what the heck it meant.

Here in Mott, the town kind of determines when trick-or-treating will take place.  This way it can been done before it gets too dark or too cold…then the Women’s group feeds anyone who wants to dress up and come over.

This way, Brian was still working, but I could feel safe sending David on his merry way cuz it was light outside and I could sit on the porch giving out candy to the kids who came our way.  Since we are on the North and East edges of the city limits, we mostly got traffic from those kids who live around us.  Another nice thing about the prescribed T-or-T time is that just about EVERYONE is home handing out candy during that period…we are talking 2 1/2 hours here…we gave out candy for a lot longer than that in Vegas and in So Cal.

David is getting to the point where he is losing interest in T-or-Ting…He walked around for about a half hour then came and home and gave out candy.  Next year he only wants to give out candy…he says today…we will see if he still feels that way a year from now.

What constitutes “safe and sane” you may ask? Well, they are usually a “shower of sparks” that shoot up from the firework no more that 8 feet.

The stuff they are selling on the streets of North Dakota are equivalent to the stuff pyrotechnicians set up to be timed with orchestras, or shot off the roofs of casinos…only the stuff in ND has a “report” noise accompanying what goes up in the air, making it sound like a cannon going off.

I was absolutely blown away, no pun intended, by the stuff we were shooting off.  I’ve only ever seen stuff like this at concerts, casinos, or Dodger Stadium…however, the whole “report” (shooting cannon noise) had given me a whopping headache by the end of the night! Uffda! The down side to these “shot high in air” fireworks was that that stuff has to come down once it burns out and a lot of times it ended up in your hair! Thankfully it wasn’t much more than cold ash by the time it landed!

The three “boys” (I use the term loosely), pictured here (L-R Friend Mason, nephew Jake, and Brother-in-Law Kenny), felt the need to shoot Roman Candles at each other.  Not the smartest thing ever done, but thankfully, the only casualty were a few of Mason’s cheek whiskers.  Once again, not the smartest thing ever done.

For those of you unfamiliar with Roman Candles, it’s about a 12″ long, 1″ in diameter tube that you light at one end and it shoots out sparks and colored balls of some blazingly hot substance…they are not meant to be “shot” at others, but as they say, boys will be boys.  I say, “Sure, it’s all funny until someone gets hurt”.   And David wonders why I won’t let him join in.  David was pretty pissed at me, all the way around, by the end of the night because his mother actually uses the brain cells between her ears and says NO YOU CAN’T SHOOT A ROMAN CANDLE AT ANYONE! LOL!  It didn’t help that David was exhausted.

This tank was the only thing David really wanted from the fireworks shop. What is it with boys and playing Army? Anyway, David was going to save this one for the very last encore, but couldn’t wait.  He was not disappointed! He set it in the middle of the street and first it propelled itself down the road a bit, then it shot sparks out of the cannon,  and then the turret spun around in a shower of sparks.  Ultimately, if I remember correctly, it blew itself up in the end.  David thought it was really cool! LOL

It was a nice 4th, spent laughing, oohing, and aahhing with family and good friends. Can’t ask for much more than that!

Since I knew Brian was going to be in ND and Shawn would be at work, I asked Erin if maybe she and Kailee might like to go grab a bite of dinner after the kids performed at 5pm.  Erin thought it was a good idea so we decided to stop at an Asian Buffet right around the corner from the School Board offices.

The restaurant was busy enough, and the noise level was a bit high, but that didn’t stop the four of us from talking and laughing.  Somehow we got on the subject of embarrassing stories and I shared one I’d had.

It was 4th of July, 1991.  Bri and I had moved here to Vegas just months earlier, but this was our first 4th in Vegas and we were going to barbeque and my folks were in town and staying with us.  Mom was in the midst of making her famous potato salad and there were a few things I needed from the store.  As I was heading out the front door, Bri stopped me and asked me to look and see if the store carried Pickled Okra.  “Pickled Okra? Why would you want Pickled Okra??” I asked.  Brian said someone at work had brought some in and offered to let him try it.  He did and he liked it!  “OK,” I said, “if they have it, I will pick it up.”

So off to Smith’s I went.  I noticed that there was a big hook and ladder fire truck in the parking lot…I wondered if the firemen, inside shopping, might actually  get to celebrate the 4th a little before they started getting called out later that night.  I went into the store, grabbed a cart and started loading it up and crossing stuff off my shopping list.  The last item left to find is the Pickled Okra.  After getting some help to locate it, I grabbed a jar, and put it in the basket portion of my cart.  Without thinking, I started to push my cart and that damn jar of okra, slid right through the “leg hole” portion of the front basket and hit the floor, shattering the glass jar, and spreading the pickle juice and okra amongst the pieces of glass.

If you’ve never experienced pickled okra, let me just say, they are slimey, slippery little buggers.

Since I was already in mid-stride, my foot came down on a piece of okra (think banana peel), and I went down amongst the okra, glass and pickle juice.  Those firemen I mentioned earlier just happened to be about 15 feet away at the other end of the okra aisle.  Those firemen had me up and out of the glass, okra and pickle juice and examining me for cuts faster than I knew what happened.  Thankfully, only my ego was bruised and I smelled like a pickle!

I immediately checked out, without the okra, and went home, where upon I infomed Brian that if he wanted any Pickled Okra in the future, he would have to go get it himself!

Upon my conclusion of this story, in that noisy restaurant, Kailee looked at me and said, “What the heck is a ‘Pickled Oprah’?”  At which point the rest of us totally cracked up!