Thanksgiving

I just wanted to write a little bit about my Thanksgiving, and what I am thankful for in this holiday season. I really wanted to do this earlier, but I just haven't been on a computer to type this out during my extended holiday weekend.

I have not been someone who has really struggled all that much in my life, I really have been quite fortunate in most areas. I think that even the negative things that have happened in my life only it make it that much easier to appreciate all of the positive things.

Things I am thankful for (not an all inclusive list):

I am thankful for my family. I have 2 supportive and caring parents, both of whom I have great relationships with. We might not talk every day, but I am extremely thankful for them. I also have 2 great brothers who might not live in the same area, but I am always happy to have them.

I am thankful for my friends. I have some great friends in my life, both old and new. I have especially enjoyed making new friends in the past few years, I am glad to have each of them in my life.

I am thankful to have found some passions in life. I like writing on this blog. Its not about how many people read it, its more about being able to write in general, I like to have that kind of an outlet in my life. I also love movies, and thinking about movies, writing about movies, talking about movies, and just movies in general. I also am thankful for the ability to cook, I like trying new foods, I love cooking new recipes and everything in between. I prefer to make things at home rather than buying them when I can. I am always looking for new things to make or try.

I am thankful for my health, and the fact that I have not yet had to deal with any major health issues myself, knock on wood. I may have dealt with some issues mental healthwise, but I feel great in that department too, I have done a lot of work to get here, but also getting through depression has helped make me who I am today. I would not want to change that for the world.

The final thing I will list that I am thankful for is humor. I love my ability to laugh at things, I believe that I am able to find humor in so many different things in life, and I never take myself too seriously. I think humor makes it easier to deal with so many different things in life. I think the fact that I have spent a long time dealing with depression has helped me appreciate the humor in life.

Now that we have covered some of the things that I am thankful for, I want to show some of the foods m family had for thanksgiving:

We started off the day with some cranberry oatmeal bake made with steel cut oats and fresh cranberries, it was really good, I had a few servings of it over the weekend.

The table was set for our dinner, I was the one drinking the ginger ale, everyone else had wine with their dinner.

We set the food up as a buffet because there was not enough space on the table for all of the food.

A loaf of bauernbrot that a a friend of mine was able to get made at the bakery she works at, it was great, I could definitely remember the flavor of it from when we lived in Austria, the large loaf did not survive the weekend.

This was my main contribution to the feast, my mom had some purple and yellow potatoes that we baked with some garlic, oil, and herbs. The result was delicious, and even though it wasn't mashed potatoes, I still enjoyed them a lot.

Wild rice dressing made with dried cubes of my mom's own bread, I loved the flavor of the dressing, it went well with everything. The other dish was a cranberry baked squash, I tried it, but it was still squash so it wasn't for me.

Some home made green bean casserole, made with green beans from my mom's garden, home made cream of mushroom soup, and bread crumbs made with homemade bread and onion.

An apple crumble pie and pumpkin pie, the apples were locally grown, I helped to peel them and got the other pie ingredients together, there was a nice crumb topping on it, the tart apples worked perfectly in the pie. The other is the same pumpkin pie we have been having my whole life, it if ain't broke, don't fix it!

My place with all of the different items on it, the turkey we had was a fresh Wiscosnsin turkey. I was very happy to have a Thanksgiving with lots of home grown and home made ingredients, and we also wanted to use as many local products as we could in our dinner.