Don't Call It Turkey Day!

Around this time of year, there is a little "pet peeve" that riles up my senses.  Every day about a week before Thanksgiving I hear folks on the TV, news shows, radio and even in general conversation call Thanksgiving "Turkey Day".   No!  This is NOT a day to glorify the American turkey!  Ever since 1621, this has been a day to give thanks to God for His many blessings.  Like everything else these days, holidays have become so secularized that the original meanings have been lost.  Today it seems that people think Thanksgiving is just a day to eat turkey, watch football, and then go shop for early Black Friday specials!  It has also become the kickoff for the Christmas season.   I truly hope that many of us can set aside this day to reflect on blessings that have been a part of our past year, and spend time in fellowship with family and friends.   It doesn't matter if you eat turkey or not.  In fact, I am vegetarian and don't eat turkey, and my husband doesn't like turkey (he used to work in a turkey processing plant for Jenny-O turkeys - enough said on that!).  It really doesn't matter what you eat on Thanksgiving.  Any meal can be a feast if shared with love towards family and friends.   To be truly accurate regarding the original Thanksgiving from long ago, a person would have to eat venison, clams, wild duck, boiled pumpkin, and corn hominy.  Wild turkey might have been part of the Pilgrim's feast, but historians say that venison and clams and wild duck were the prominent foods at that time and locale. So this business of eating turkey and pumpkin pie and stuffing and green bean casserole for Thanksgiving is a modern thing.   People often ask my husband and I what we "do" for Thanksgiving, since we don't eat turkey.   I always tell folks that I eat seasonal foods, well prepared.  Then I get blank looks.   Our menu varies every year (this year my husband has actually requested meatloaf), but I usually include winter squash, cabbage, cranberries, something with pumpkin,  and some sort of potato dish. These are all ingredients that are plentiful at this time of year.  The markets also have lots of varieties of table grapes at this time, and we especially enjoy the dark black seedless grapes called 'holiday grapes' at our Thanksgiving meal.

     About 5 years ago on this blog I also did an article about Thanksgiving (see November 2013 post).  I wrote about visiting Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts long ago.  Plimoth Plantation is a living history museum/place where the lives of the original Pilgrim settlers is re-enacted.   Here is a photo of that place:

Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts

Please join me in my campaign to urge others to quit calling Thanksgiving "Turkey Day" - because the day means so much more than just gorging on turkey!
     Along the lines of being thankful, last week our church sponsored a sign stenciling lesson.  Those who were interested in learning how to use stencils and paint to make decorative signs came to learn a new skill.  I had never used stencils in my life, and I am certainly no artist.  but I decided to give it a try!  The session was so much fun, and I was able to bring home my "masterpiece" sign.  This is what I made - my first attempt at sign making.

My very first ever attempt at using stencils and paint!  Not too bad, eh?  Every year this will be part of my Thanksgiving decorations.

I hope that everyone will have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving Day!  And remember - please don't call it "turkey day"!

I Guess Winter Is Here Already

It's snowing today.   Supposed to get 2 inches or so.  I guess winter is officially here.   This is rather early for us.  We usually get our first snows of the season around Thanksgiving Day.  The long range forecast calls for temperatures to dip down into single digits at night for at least the next week or so - as low as 4 degrees.   So this snow will stick around for a while.  We really didn't get a chance to winterize the yard yet, or tarp things down.  We had lots of rain, and working with tarps in the rain is no fun.  We didn't get a chance to get our bees squared away better for winter, either.   We had hoped to combine  a couple of the hives into one winter hive box, but it was too rainy and cold to do that.   A person kills bees if you work with them during weather that is too cold.   Hopefully we can still get some hay bales around the hives before the below zero stuff gets here.   It was a very rainy fall.  The farmers around here had a tough time getting crops in because of muddy fields.   In fact, Harold is still not finished with sugar beet hauling.   They had hoped to finish today, but that's not going to happen.   They hope to finish tomorrow if it stops snowing.

Well, we knew winter was coming............................

The snow is piling up quickly on our driveway.

The back yard looks pretty bleak.

We got snow during the night, and a fresh layer is settling down on our vehicles.

My Annual Bittersweet Project

Every year around this time the bittersweet is ready to pick.   I just love bittersweet!  It grows wild around here, and is so colorful.   The birds love it, too, so I leave plenty for them.  But I pick enough to do something with.   Bittersweet makes wonderful fall decorations, really nice for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.    Thanksgiving is a forgotten holiday now - stores come out with Christmas stuff right after back-to-school sales.  I get very upset when I hear folks call Thanksgiving "turkey day".  Thanksgiving is not a day to glorify the turkey - it is a day to give thanks to God for all our blessings!  It seems like anymore Thanksgiving has become just a day to eat a big turkey meal, watch football, and shop for Christmas gifts on early black Friday sales.   Well, we don't eat turkey in this house - my husband doesn't like it, I don't eat it (I am a vegetarian), we hate football, and don't do all the crazy shopping.  For us, Thanksgiving is truly a day for visiting friends and family, and prayerfully reflecting on all the blessings of the year.   But I digress............

Usually I make some sort of wall decorations with bittersweet, but this year I decided to do table decor instead.   My first project was to do something special for our front porch, the enclosed entry to our house.   I always like that room to look good.  I had a few sprigs leftover and used them to make a harvest look basket for the living room table.   Here's what I did today:

Here is the pile of bittersweet I gathered from the wild.  It is hard to gather, as the vines wind around tree branches so much that it is hard to unwind!  Some of the bittersweet grew in deep ditches that I couldn't get to, and some vines were a little too high to reach.  Now, what to make with all of this!?!

My first project was to dress up the porch table.  I put sprigs in a large brown ceramic bowl, added a paper twist bow, and bound some of the smaller pieces into a sort of nosegay to set by a small pumpkin from the garden.   The white tablecloth sets things off nicely, don't you think?

I had a few small pieces left,so I tucked them into a basket of squash and pumpkins from the garden, added a checked paper twist bow, and added some dried corn cobs.   This makes a nice centerpiece for the living room!  To me, this says "fall" in a very natural way.

Decorating with things found in nature is so much fun!  Using what I had on hand, and a little imagination, makes for cozy country-look decor.   No need to go to the hobby store or spend big money!