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12:44 p.m. - 2005-11-25 And How Was Your Thanksgiving?I don't think any Thanksgiving story I could tell this year or any year to come will ever be as traumatic and as memorable as the one we had three years ago. I will link to it HERE for those of you who missed it last year. My sister who lives in Australia ceased celebrating Thanksgiving altogether years ago because it is a strickly American Holiday and she doesn't get 4 days off to prepare, eat and clean up and rest after and having 2 active kids pretty much wears her out, but when she was newly married and childless, she did try to treat her Aussie pals to some cultural Americana and cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner which she invited them to. Finding a large turkey was a problem and canned pumpkin was hard to come by. Australians do eat pumpkin but more as a squash and as a soup and none of her friends had ever heard of a pumpkin pie. When the pie was served, they took a pass and I am sure it sounded about as appetizing to them as Sqaush Pie would sound to us...YUCK!!! My brother in law made everyone have a piece though and they realized that pumpkin could indeed be delightful baked in a pie with equal amounts of cream, sugar and heavily spiced. As a matter of fact, do we really taste the pumpkin at all??? Speaking of Aussies. One woman called into the talk radio show I listen to and explained that her husband was Australian and thinks Thanksgiving is a horrible holiday. Apparently he learned as a school boy that the reason it is celebrated is because hundreds of years ago, the English landed on Plymouth Rock and the Indians were kind enough to help them plant and build their cabins and the white man rewarded them with a slaughtering of which generations of Americans since celebrate by eating a Turkey. I suppose if you had believed that from childhood it would seem like a rather barbaric holiday. Yesterday, I prepared a small Thanksgiving feast for my Husband and Mother in Law. I took out 2 crockpots and in one, placed 4 chicken breasts and some apple, pecan stuffing and plugged it in for it's 6 hour slow cook. In the other I prepared a brocolli cheese casserole which I told my husband to plug in 3 hours before they wanted to eat. I left some "simply potatoes" brand garlic mashed potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes in the fridge and some Campbells microwaveable gravy on the counter and told him to call me 15 minutes before dinner and I would walk him through the rest of the dinner. I then went to my sisers house to join my family for a proper Turkery dinner (which was delicious). I saw the panic in my husband's eyes as I left, being that he has never done anything more than nuke a lean cusine or some leftovers. I called to remind him to plug in the broccolli cheese casserole and heard the panic I saw in his eyes, in his voice, reassuring him that nothing could possibly go wrong. When Mike panics, he talks very loud. 15 minutes before they wanted to eat, the phone rang. I answered knowing it was him and I swear, I heard panic in the ring itself. "PAULA....PAULA....CAN I SPEAK TO PAULA." "This is Paula", I said "PAULA?"..... "Yes." "I HAVE A SITUATION!!!!!!!!!!!" I imagined my kitchen in flames or possibly without electricity due to too many electrical appliances plugged in. I pictured breakers popping and sparks flying. "What's the situation?" "THE CROCKPOT DIDN'T HEAT UP..THE BROCOLLI'S STONE COLD...WHAT TO I DO?" "Well, I guess you won't be having brocolli. Just put on the lid and put it in the fridge, I'll check it out later....by the way, are you sure you didn't plug in the toaster instead of the crockpot?" I asked. "I'M SURE, BECAUSE THAT'S WAHT I DID AT FIRST, THEN I SAW THE LIGHT ON THE TOASTER GO ON AND UNPLUGGED IT AND PLUGGED IN THE CROCKPOT." he replied. "Well, Bon Appetite" I said and hung up. This upset me a bit as it was a newer crockpot, only used a few times and I had no idea where the warranty card or receipt was. When I got home, I plugged in the crockpot and turned it on. Within minutes it was warm and 10 minutes later it was cooking my brocolli casserole. "It works" I pointed out. "mmmm" he said, "maybe I unplugged the toaster and plugged it back in....I was very nervous you know." And now folks, you can see why instead of divorcing this man and leaving him on his own to flail about in his life, dying hungry and homeless in a cardboard box, I instead allowed him to move with me while I continue to support him and his Mother....he is just incapable of taking care of himself..... What am I thankful for? I am thankful I am needed....at least that is what I keep telling myself to keep from tearing my hair out. Hope your Thanksgiving was special. Speinding time with my sister and her family and my daughter is always special to me. P. I. Yarnsmith
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