This and That about Thanksgiving

Since there are no Hodgepodge Questions this week, I went on a search for some Thanksgiving prompts and found these on slideswith.com - Icebreaker Questions. We ask an ice breaker question every single Tuesday night with our Young Adults. Please feel free to copy and paste into your own blog or just answer some in the comments! 

1. What’s your favorite Thanksgiving pie? I don't eat sweets but if I did, it would be either German Chocolate Pie or Pecan Pie. My mom made a Chocolate Pie when I was growing up that I loved, too. I am in charge of Pumpkin Pie and German Chocolate Pie for Thursday. I baked yesterday. On the Pumpkin can, there was a tiny footnote, "For Bourbon Pumpkin Pie, add 2 T Bourbon with milk." I made one of those, too. I had more filling than I had pie crust so I just used a pie pan for the overflow of German Chocolate Pie . . .I may have added Bourbon to it, too (the overflow pies . . .not the ones to be served to everyone)

2. If you had to pick between being at the Thanksgiving parade or the Thanksgiving football game, which would you pick? Why? That is a tough question because I love a good parade and have always wanted to go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I love a good football game, too. Maybe I could do both! I would enjoy because I love the half-time shows plus I love to people watch.

3. What’s your favorite Thanksgiving tradition? One year, I made a cute Thanksgiving tree with tags for everyone to write their "things for which I'm thankful." Everyone sort of did it . . .but it didn't become a tradition. For all but 1 or 2 years since we've been married, we've celebrated Thanksgiving around Mark's mom's table and we will be doing that again this year. She is no longer able to cook or plan a menu BUT we are doing all of that . . .and she will think she has done it as she proudly sits at the head of her dining room table.

4. Do you think marathons (or any physical activities) are acceptable Thanksgiving Day activities? Why or why not? We have lots of Turkey Trots around here and I know there is one on Thanksgiving Day. I won't be running in it, but I will ride my stationary bike that morning to burn off (in advance :-)) some of those calories. We all need to exercise!

5. Who here has participated in Black Friday shopping? Share your craziest story. I have participated a couple of times but it isn't my favorite thing to do. Mark used to leave to go hunting right after we finished Thanksgiving dinner. One year, the kids and I spent the night at his mom's house so that I could hit the toy store before daylight on Friday. Mark's mom had a list and I had a list. The agreement was that I would leave the kids asleep at her house with her while I shopped for both of us. She wanted several Simon musical games - I think for the neighbor's kids. I was in a toy store in the mall and I remember grabbing everything I needed very quickly (I had a plan!) and going to get in line. The store had only been open a few minutes and evidently . . . everyone else had the same plan because the line went up and down every aisle of the store. I was shocked! I don't remember how long it took but the "standing in the check-out line" portion of the morning took far longer than the shopping.

6. Which is the better flavor: Pumpkin spice or caramel apple? I love pumpkin spice. When I was baking pies yesterday, my house smelled so good!!

7. If you were tasked with recreating Thanksgiving, what foods would you add and what would you take away? I would take away the canned cranberry sauce. I would add extra dressing and gravy :-).

8. What is the worst Thanksgiving food you’ve ever had? My mom died on November 19 -- 50 years ago this year. Some sweet friends brought Thanksgiving left-overs to us, because that year like this year, was Thanksgiving week. The dressing had a "tin" taste . . .and I think we felt really yucky after we ate it. They were so kind to bring it to us.

9. What’s the best Thanksgiving food you’ve ever had? You are going to catch on if you haven't already. My choice is dressing and gravy. We are talking cornbread dressing, not stuffing. My sister-in-law makes a sweet potato casserole that everyone loves. We also have a recipe for a Cranberry Apple Casserole which we serve as a side dish BUT it should really be a dessert.

10. Which TV show had the best Thanksgiving episode? I actually pulled up an old Thanksgiving episode of The Big Bang Theory this morning. I loved that series!!

11. What’s your favorite Thanksgiving memory? This is not your traditional favorite Thanksgiving memory. One of my former co-workers had a story about when her husband was in the military and she was living in base housing. She and another young mother went together to purchase turkeys from a turkey farm. The turkeys were still alive when they got to the turkey farm and they had to cram them into her trunk which was filled with turkey poop by the time they got home. They had to kill those turkeys and pluck them and she had to use the bathtub for some of this. She told the story really well!! We would get her to tell it every year at work and I would laugh every time as if it were the first time I heard it. I'm chuckling as I type!

12. Who has the worst job: Those cooking the Thanksgiving meal or those cleaning up after it? Which would you prefer? We actually asked this as our ice breaker question last week but we asked only the second portion. I was surprised that there were a lot of folks who said they would rather clean up! I would rather cook.