Thank You!

Thanks everybody, for making my blog a growing and lively communication.  I love to laugh,  I love family (I have several), and I love food, things I'm grateful for today.    Apparently, you are too.  We're nearing 3,000 hits.  That will happen in the next couple of weeks.  We have new friends in Russia, Great Britain, Germany, France, The Ukraine, China (I know, how did they find us?), Malaysia, Columbia, India, Mexico, Canada, among others.  I can't tell you how much I love that.  All of that has happened since we started in February, thanks to the suggestion of my friend, Carla, in Germany.

So, a favorite Thanksgiving memory?  A couple of years ago, Julie, my cousin and I,  were invited to Thanksgiving with her bestie, Joanne  and her sister, Jeanne.  They've been friends with Julie since college.  They accumulated husbands, kids, grandkids, and the newly minted, baby Andrew.  When Julie was sick, it was Joanne who was sitting with me during the surgeries.  We were with Julie all day, from 8:00 A.M. to 5:30 — without eating.  Julie couldn't eat pre-surgery, so we didn't either.  I treasure that kind of help and support.

Fast forward, 3 years, and I get a call from Joanne, offering Julie and I an out, if we wanted it.
They'd been roasting the turkey, outside (all the inside ovens were full, you know the drill), and the chef had forgotten something important, made a fast-feets trip to the store, and while they were gone.  .  .  the turkey caught fire, burned itself into a hard and fast crispy critter.  Beyond retrieval.

I offered Joanna a ham I had in the fridge and said, "I'm not missing a second of this."  Julie still wanted to come too.  Joanne took me up on the ham.  I can honestly say, it's the only meal I've giggled my way through.  As did everybody else.  We laughed all day.  

How was the ham?  Marginal.  Didn't matter.  The turkey was still the star attraction and my main memory.  Can't wait to explain that to baby Andrew.

For all my friends, the ones I know and the ones I don't, for my church, for my community, for my family,  you are the best of the best and I know it.