T.H.A.N.K.S. Hodgepodge

 

Joining up for the Hodgepodge! Please feel free to answer the questions in the comments section or copy and paste the questions into your own blog and link up with us at From this Side of the Pond. Thank you to Joyce for coming up with the questions every week!!

1. Have you ever been on a cruise? If so where did you go and how did you like it? If not, do you have any desire to take a cruise someday? Yes, I have been on one cruise way back when I was about 20 years old. My best friend was going on a cruise with her parents and they invited me to go along and paid for half of my trip. Otherwise, I couldn’t have afforded it. It was 7 days and we went to San Juan and the Virgin Islands and a fun private island. I think I would like to do a river cruise in Europe at some point.

2. Tell us about your Thanksgiving plans...are you hosting? cooking? eating out? turkey or some other main? is it stuffing or dressing in your house? homemade cranberries or cranberries in a can? are pies on the dessert menu? what kind? what are your 'must have' sides? Tell us one thing you're especially grateful for this year. We will be eating at my mother-in-law’s house. She “thinks” she is cooking but we are all doing the cooking. My sister-in-law will make the turkey and dressing. We are providing the ham, a green bean casserole, roasted Brussels Sprouts, and a relish tray. Mark’s other brother and wife are bringing sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie. Our son and his wife are bringing this apple cranberry casserole that we all LOVE. We will serve cranberry sauce straight out of the can (if someone remembered to buy it). I don’t waste calories on that side. A friend of ours is bringing a dessert which happens to be another pie - pecan. It will be a feast. By the way, I LOVE dressing and gravy and would be happy to have just those two items on my plate.

Last year at Thanksgiving - we've had
it at our house for several years but my
sister-in-law just moved to town so
we are having it back at my mother-in-law's
house this year

I am grateful for the gift of life! Seriously. After the house fire and emergency surgery for me . . .and then my sister-in-law had brain surgery this week and is doing great . . .life is indeed a gift and I am thankful.

3. If someone approaches you and asks for money do you give it to them? Do you drop money 'in a tin cup' that belongs to a person on the street? Do you have a specific charity you support during the holiday season and/or year round? Do you remember that I work at a church? We used to have people dropping by the church ALL of the time asking for help. Our church now has a mission hub about 3 miles away where we can send people for food and clothing. We have a social worker on staff who helps navigate all of this. My husband volunteers there a couple of days a week now that he is retired. Most of the time, the folks on the street begging for money are not homeless. We had someone from the homeless coalition come and speak to our young adult group. He advised us to never give money to the folks on the off ramp of the interstate. They are usually dropped off . . .and they are usually not homeless. We give to our church regularly. We also give to a few other worthy organizations. For Christmas, we always take an angel from our angel tree at church. I’ve ordered everything from Target for a 7 year old little girl.

4. Have you started decorating for Christmas? Is your tree up? Shopping done? Wrapped? This question made me laugh out loud . . .and then I had a tiny panic attack! I haven’t started decorating. I prefer to decorate after Thanksgiving because I LOVE Thanksgiving. We are going to put a tree up – even though we are in a small apartment. I have ordered my angel tree presents and I have bought one thing for our youngest granddaughter. I have also bought something for my sister to give to that same granddaughter. I haven’t wrapped any.

5. Create your own acrostic using the word THANKS. 

T – is for Travel – something we love to do Together

H – is for Hope – without hope, where would we be

A – is for All of our friends and family who mean the world to us

N – is for Neighbors who show up when your house burns

K – is for Knowing that God loves me . . .and not just me . . . but everyone

S – is for Study . . .if we aren’t learning, we are dying.

6.  Insert your own random thought here. I’m taking a day off today and I just made my to-do list and it is a mile long. Mark has his men’s group at 6:00 a.m. so he is already out of the apartment. The cat is playing behind me so I can hear him. He makes the funniest sounds when he is playing. Speaking of playing, Mark is going to take granddaughter #1 to a climbing place at 10:00. I hope he is bringing her to play at the apartment after that. We have new Old Maid cards that my sister sent us!! That was WAY more than one random thought. What can I say?? I have a hard time having just one thought 😊