Posts Tagged ‘Thanksgiving’
Family Feast
Our Thanksgiving holiday was blessed with family graciously agreeing to travel the distance to our home, despite the onset of our first measurable snowfall of the season. We feasted and visited with full Thanksgiving spirit.
In the morning, our favorite neighbor, George Walker, brought some of his family by, enriching our holiday more than ever. The wet morning drizzle transitioned to snow and the day became a blur of kids, boots, sleds, food, and food, and more food.
I have no idea how many calories I consumed, but due to the fact that I found myself snacking non-stop from early on, up to the main event dinner, and beyond, I expect it was well past normal. That’s part of what makes a holiday feast event special. It is definitely not normal.
I captured a shot of 7 precious people working on preparations in the kitchen, with Delilah lingering close to keep the floor clean in case of spills.
We had all 5 leaves extending the table to full-size and then added a card table at the end, which serves to really make it seem like a holiday feast.
Food was superb, family supreme, and a grand time was had by all.
It was a fine day of thanks. We have much for which to be thankful.
Above it all, family and friends.
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Many Thanks
On this eve of our Thanksgiving holiday, I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to you, my readers, for venturing into my world and joining in my adventures and explorations of Somethings occasionally Relative. You may have arrived to view my stories of a Himalayan trek, our visit to Portugal, my annual bike trips, pictures, poetry, Words on Images, or tales of a transition from the suburbs to our Wintervale Ranch paradise. You may be family, friends, coworkers, fellow WordPress bloggers, poets, photographers, wordsmiths, or happenstance searching link-clickers.
You are my audience, and I thank you for your participation, silent or otherwise.
I hope that regular followers have grown familiar with the usual cast of characters that populate the content of late. A certain dog seems to get the most mention. Long ago I began a move toward dropping constant use of orienting descriptions for people and animals that show up in my tales of adventure and woe, hoping that they were becoming established and familiar to readers over time.
We are many chapters into a book that you are reading as it is being written. What will happen next? I can’t make it up. The drama plays out with little concern about how I might be able to narrate it.
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I purchased a replacement GFCI breaker for power to the waterer in the paddock. It failed, too. My “spidey” sense tells me there is leakage current, after all. Removing the access panel on the waterer revealed an incredible amount of moisture present. No wonder. I saw a statistic that we are currently running in 7th place for wettest November on record.
In the previous two years of having that waterer during the winter, we’ve never faced needing to have the heater on when it was so wet.
I’m temporarily bypassing the GFI safety feature to keep the ice off the water source for our horses. Cyndie had a heck of a time breaking off the ice for them yesterday morning, after I tried a night with no power at all.
It appears the solar-powered battery supplying electricity to our arena fence is successfully keeping the horses from wreaking havoc on the barrier.
I found a picture I had taken with the intent of showing how wet the ground was, and discovered it caught Legacy in the distance, mouthing the fence. Busted!
Don’t forget, you can click on the smaller images to bring up the full-size view for closer inspection.
Our house is already filled with the aroma of traditional holiday feasting fare. Cyndie has been busy cooking and cleaning in preparation of hosting Thanksgiving dinner here tomorrow. Family that are planning to come should consider bringing mud-boots.
The weather shows signs of possible precipitation, in addition to the water already saturating our grounds. I’m hoping we don’t all end up stuck indoors watching parades and football games, and eating way more than we should as a result of more rain. It would be a shame to miss out on walks in our woods, exercising Delilah to tire her out, walking the labyrinth, and visiting the horses.
I’m guessing we won’t let a little rain stop us from getting out for a little bit.
Thank you for reading!
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Concocting Thankfulness
Amid the backdrop of societal problems of racial injustice, religious violence, political corruption, patriarchal rape culture, unbridled banking industry crimes, insane sports and entertainment industry salaries, over-commercialization of holidays, and overall people’s misplaced priorities, we pause in the US today to give thanks.
Our Thanksgiving holiday harkens back to a time when one tribe of people gathered together with the indigenous people whom were seen as lesser-than, to feast over their bounty and good fortune. Somehow, the feast became an annual tradition, despite the despicable behavior of the dominant group that whitewashed deeds to allow themselves to feel okay with their means to an end.
Today I enjoy the luxury of living with horses. They give me many reasons to be thankful. I am acutely aware of the privilege that contributed to the opportunity for me to achieve this luxury. It requires some mental exercise to get beyond the guilt and shame over the behavior of the people who came before me to pave my way.
Our horses help me focus on the present moment. They live without pretense, ask for little, and give to no end.
For the American holiday of Thanksgiving, I struggle to identify with the thanks being brandished about, but for the genuine art of being thankful, I am all in.
There is much love and plenty of family and friends to be thankful for, and in that regard I am richly blessed. My solution to dealing with all the ills of the world is to send love equally in all directions. Where I don’t feel love, I can produce it. From that effort comes genuine feelings of love, suddenly manifest. It’s not unlike thankfulness.
Love and thanks are not far apart. I am thankful for very many things, and today I will contemplate that. I send my love to you all, and hope that you find much to be thankful for, too.
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Wonderful Visit
I’ve said it before, and I will say it (write it) again, our place is made whole by the presence of guests. We are extremely thankful for the families who traveled to be with us this past weekend, celebrating the U.S. Thanksgiving.
For some reason, the presence of visitors causes me to forget I even have a camera, so I captured very few images. Before anyone arrived, Cyndie was working in the kitchen to prepare foods for the feast, and Delilah felt the need to get right in the middle of the action to help out. Once there, she fell fast asleep.
The second image is from the labyrinth. I was a bit surprised to see how popular the labyrinth turned out to be with the young ones. It doesn’t beep or ding, doesn’t involve eating anything, it is outdoors, and it requires active participation. They loved it! I believe some preferred it over visiting with the horses. Several kids asked to be able to walk it one more time before going in, and later, some asked if they could return to the labyrinth to walk it again.
Both of those images are off my phone, because I didn’t have my camera handy either time. I didn’t capture any record of the wonderful interactions between kids and horses, nor the delightful behaviors of Delilah amidst the chaos and clamor of 20 people, young and old, eating and conversing loudly all around her.
It was a wonderful visit and we feel truly blessed to have been able to share our place with family over the holiday weekend.
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Round Two
We get a second shot at a family Thanksgiving today, with “Hays” relations making the trip east to visit and meet our horses for the first time. It really is a colossal treat for us to have guests visit Wintervale, despite the urge to have everything looking perfectly-tended and thus our needing to vacuum endlessly. Delilah doesn’t seem to see the point of that, and quickly crushes a bone to dusty bits on the rug, or shreds the next available stuffed toy to distribute clouds of white fluff to and fro.
She can be very assertive about making her point, like right now how she is repeatedly moving my right hand off the keyboard with her head to demand I scratch her, so I have to type one letter at a time with my left hand. At least I have a good excuse why the post is my usual Sunday lateness in getting published for you all.
I do need to get to the vacuuming, and would like to clean the paddocks before guests arrive, so I will make this short today. I’ll leave you with this fun portrait that Elysa captured of me with Dezirea during Thursday’s Thanksgiving visit by Cyndie’s family. I was inside the paddock to encourage the horses to come down the fence line for treats offered by our visitors. Dezi was checking my hand, looking for a treat that wasn’t there.
Oh, that reminds me… Last night, Cyndie and I cut up apples, celery, parsley, oranges, added shredded carrots, floated them in sugar-water with a little food coloring, and froze them to make “treats” for the horses. It was a recipe Cyndie discovered somewhere. I am looking forward to seeing if they show interest in the strange bucket-sized popsicles.
Happy December to you all!
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The Table
When Mom let us have the old Hays family dining room table, the one thing she required in exchange was that we host the Thanksgiving meal on it. Whenever it is time to haul the 5 center leaves out of storage, to stretch the table to conference-room size, I experience a flood of memories, and an overwhelming sense of appreciation for the honor of being given possession of the family table.
This table was in the farm-house of Intervale Ranch where my family lived when I was born. It has been with me for most of my life. I snapped this shot of the expanded length prior to covering it with 12 place settings and more foods than should be allowed yesterday.
Another happy Thanksgiving is in the books.
Ah, but that’s not all. This year we get two versions. Yesterday, Cyndie’s side of the family came over. On Sunday, the Hays side of the family with gather. We’ll keep the table extended for the days between. That will prolong my period of enjoying the memories conjured up when I see it in all its glory of being full-size.
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Happily Thankful
I dug in the archives to reclaim the image I used last year to express Thanksgiving greetings from our new home. Now edited, to show this years date, here is the start of year-2 at our new home… We are truly thankful.
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Clean Up
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“What do you mean I have to put away all my toys because company is coming?”
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Twas the day before Thanksgiving, and all through the house… Yeah, we’re cleanin.’ And cooking!
Cyndie read somewhere that you should give your dog a new toy every few days, or at least, rotate them out of service for a while as new ones are introduced. I know how this works. We raised kids. Delilah would just as likely play with a stick or a leaf and be fascinated for an hour. She would just as happily devour the cardboard backing a new chew toy had been mounted to, instead of the toy itself. Ice cubes are a current fascination. But it seems everyday I discover a new colorful device in our house that pet scientists of the world have devised to keep our dog intellectually challenged.
I’d like to meet the marketing genius who wrote that article Cyndie read, …and congratulate him.
“Don’t forget to clean up after the horses in the paddocks!”
Yes, dear. I should just let Delilah eat it all. With a dog’s sense of smell a gazillion times better than humans, you’d think manure would smell something awful to them. So, why the need to taste it at every encounter? The horses, deer, raccoons… She doesn’t discriminate.
I sure hope it won’t be too sunny tomorrow. I don’t think we’ll get around to washing windows before guests arrive.
If you are traveling today, be careful out there! We hope everyone in the States reading along will have a chance this holiday-extended-weekend to gather with others, sit down to a meal together, and bask in the valuable energy of being thankful. If you notice your hosts missed a spot when they were cleaning for guests, be sure to cut them some slack. Especially if they have been trying to live with a great big puppy and two frustrated house cats for the last two months.
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Relative Something 