Hodgepodge

I'm joining up with Joyce for Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. Talking turkey...are you cooking the turkey this year? Does ham belong on a Thanksgiving day menu? When it comes to gravy do you pour it over your whole plate, skip it altogether, or land somewhere in between? Cranberries-homemade or jelled right out of the can? Do you look forward more to the main course, the savory sides, or the desserts? 

"We" are cooking the turkey. I bought it and I'm thawing it. Does that count for anything? Hopefully, Mark is going to smoke it tomorrow IF it isn't pouring rain at 5:00 a.m. tomorrow. If it is raining, we may be cooking it in the oven . . .along with everything else.

I do like ham on the Thanksgiving menu. I froze part of the Honeybaked Ham we served a few weeks ago and I hope to have enough to put some on the platter.

I LOVE gravy and I like it on the turkey and the dressing. I usually pass up the cranberry sauce. I bought a can of jellied and a can of whole berry.

I look forward to the dressing and gravy (stuffing for those of you who don't live in the south).

I know there are at least a couple of bloggers who participate here who live outside the US and won't be celebrating Thanksgiving. If that's you feel free to adapt this question to your December (or any) holiday meal.

2. Holiday movies...tell us your favorite and what it is about the film that makes you love it. Is it the film itself or a memory it stirs? 

Our family loves Christmas Vacation. We've watched it so many times. Mark and I also love Four Christmases. We've watched it a lot of times, too. Growing up, I loved the old Rudolph movie.

While I'm cooking, I have on a cute Christmas movie where an American is stranded . . .at a British lodge.

3. A favorite way to give back and help others? We have a ministry center called The Hub that is a part of our church. We feed over 500 families every week by providing groceries. We (the collective we) offer ESL classes on Monday night and we have refugees from over 20 countries -- or maybe speaking 20 languages. We have two "stores" -- one is for clothing and household goods including children's toys and books. The other is a "market" -- people can make appointments and come and shop for groceries. They do not have to pay for any of those. Our Christmas store is being stocked and readied for shopping. Rather than just giving a family a bag of toys, we collect wish lists from many of our families that are served by The Hub. The store will be open for three days in December. Parents will make an appointment and they are allowed to pick five (or six?) toys/items for each child in their family. The ability to shop (event without paying) allows the parents to feel as if they have had more to do with Christmas. Other ways of providing for people throughout the year, and at Christmas, are wonderful - we've just found this works for our church. Mark volunteers at The Hub two days every week. He does food rescue from Publix and helps with the delivery from the Food Bank. There are so many folks who volunteer weekly at this ministry. 

4. Name a place or setting you encountered this month that made you feel grateful. I plan to write more about this, but am not quite ready. My oldest sister died on Tuesday morning. She had been in poor health, but I talked to her on Monday afternoon and had no idea she would be gone in just a few hours. While I'm typing this (lunchtime on Wednesday), Mark is currently sitting at the bedside of his younger brother who is still in ICU. There has been a slight (REALLY TINY) improvement.

5. Knowing what you know today, if you could redo yesterday what would you do differently? I almost want to say that I would bring my sister back . . .but she was so tired of going to dialysis.

6. Spill your own random thought here. We are trying to take deep breaths and be grateful. We do have so much for which we are grateful.