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Location: Clearwater, South Carolina, United States

Friday, November 24, 2006

thankful - 1

Thanksgiving morning began as most all my mornings do, by waking to realize the day had already begun without me. The only problem of the morning so far was the fact that I had scheduled my waking hour to be 8am and my eyes popped wide open shortly after 6am. Then due to my mind going over the events of the coming day and an annoying leg cramp, I lay there and just thought for a while. Then about 30 minutes before time for me to get up I went back to sleep – but I still knew it would be a great day.

Last evening (Wednesday) our kin from Florida came in for a few days and while our beds are not quite maxed out, we have a fairly large group. Always good to see them but we don’t get together very often since they live in the Fort Lauderdale area, just north of Miami, Florida – 600 plus miles away. OD and her clan are in the upstairs bedrooms and the others are in the basement ‘suite’ – two bedrooms and a bath that were originally made for the use of YD and GM1 some years back and have come in very handy over the years when we have company for a big family event.

Arising and limping into this day of great expectations, I began my prep for the two large events of the holiday. The first would be a noon meal of fun and feast out at my brother’s place with most of his close family. My prep portion for this occasion was to cook a squash casserole and a banana pudding. The makings for the casserole had been prepared previously and frozen so this was not a big task. The banana pudding is my main cooking specialty and was the big task of the morning before departing for the event.

After a bit of breakfast, I started cranking up the pudding about 9:30, they usually take about an hour from start to finish. Keep in mind that this is a carefully constructed work of culinary art and not some instant pudding thing that is thrown together. It is built from ‘scratch’ ingredients the old fashion way and all the calories are left in the mix. The routine for the past several years has been that I would go out to my brother’s solo for their noon meal and then come back for our family get together that is held at our house somewhere in the neighborhood of 5pm.

The Spice is able to get along without me that long because she is busy in prep for our gala event in the evening. Our meal, as is my brother’s, is the cooperative efforts of several cooks in the family and not just a big hassle for one person. With my dishes finished, I cleaned up a bit, loaded up and headed to the brother’s. This trip is a bit over 20 miles, takes about 30 minutes, about half of it is by way of interstate and I couldn’t help but notice that there seemed to be so many vehicles on the road.

It would appear that they are striving to get somewhere for the holiday but I’m just surprised that they haven’t arrived as yet, this being Thanksgiving Day. It struck me a bit odd that the highway seemed to have many more autos going eastward than it did westward – I have no idea why. Due to recent rain and heavy winds, a large part of the fall color has been blown to the ground to compost and enrich the soil for the trees and plants to grow next year. This is God’s plan for the continuance of His creation. For this I am thankful. TBC ec

8 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Many blessings and much shalom to you and yours, Mr. Eddie!

11/25/2006 12:43:00 AM  
Blogger Merle said...

Hi Mr. Eddie ~ Congrats for meking the
banana pudding from scratch. I hope you had a great lunch at your brother's house, and then home to the big event. I trust that you all really
enjoyed that and being together, which is the best part of it all. I hope
that your leg is healing and not too troublesome. Take care, Merle.

11/25/2006 01:40:00 AM  
Blogger mreddie said...

SSN - Thanks and may peace and blessings dwell with you as well.

merle - The pudding is an expected thing now at our family gatherings. The leg is a work in progress - not sure of the outcome as yet. ec

11/25/2006 09:14:00 AM  
Blogger JunieRose2005 said...

It sounds like you had a wonderful day of being with loved ones!

Take care,

June

11/25/2006 09:56:00 AM  
Blogger mreddie said...

junierose - It was indeed a wonderful day. ec

11/25/2006 10:09:00 AM  
Blogger Granny said...

Food consumed on occasions such as Thanksgiving has no calories and neither do the leftovers.

If that's not a rule, it should be.

Thanks for your comment today. Still working our way through the pies. My neighbor came over and ate 3 pieces of Karo pecan while I was off having coffee with #1 son this morning. (#2 son was working behind the counter - I have pics on blog). I think I'll make her one for Christmas.

11/25/2006 05:36:00 PM  
Blogger Bonita said...

I've never had banana pudding from scratch, and my mouth waters just thinking about it. I'm glad you had such abundance, in the way of family and meals. Oh, and those spare rooms will always come in handy during holidays.

11/25/2006 07:40:00 PM  
Blogger mreddie said...

granny - The no calorie thing should be the rule around holidays for sure. We are still working our way through leftovers of all kinds.

bonita - The pudding is one that I modified from my MIL's recipe and I have made it for years. We put in the two bedrooms and bath downstairs about 10 years ago and have gotten much use out of them for guests staying over ever since. ec

11/25/2006 11:26:00 PM  

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