Happy Thanksgiving 2010 - and Winner!

Penny, the little snot, woke me up at 3:30 a.m. I went back to bed, but decided that this time I would awaken her! Good morning, sunshine! Up and at 'em!

We're heading over later to have Thanksgiving with Jane and her sweet DH. I'm sure Skippy is SO excited that Penny will be there. Really, I'm sure he's thinking how nice it would be to have a day without her! At least they'll both sleep well tonight!

I picked up a bottle of wine strictly for its interesting label. I don't hold out much hope for it as what's inside is only described as "smooth red wine blend." Also picked up a bottle of white zinfandel just in case. Jane and I really need to decide on another way to pick wine other than the label! But we've had a few laughs over our choices through the years!

Oh, I said I'd tell you my Thanksgiving story, so here goes. It's a sad tale .... so try not to laugh too hard!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Probably has something to do with my favorite thing in the whole world - pumpkins. As a kid, Dad would wake me up really early and we'd share a cup of hot chocolate and sit and watch the Macy's Parade. My dad died when I was 21, so I look back on those early mornings with Dad as so precious.

A couple of years after Dad died, I found that I'd be alone on Thanksgiving. So I went to the market the night before and got everything I'd need to cook the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. I got up at 4:00 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning and started cooking. I cooked and cooked all day. Made enough food to feed an army. About 3:00 everything was ready but I wanted to wait until 5:00 to eat. I was in my new little house and I didn't have a dining room table yet. So I set the table on the bar in the kitchen, left the turkey and food in the oven on warm, and sat on a bar stool to comtemplate what a fine job I had done. I woke up at 10:00 that night when I fell off the stool. My dinner was "warmed" to cardboard status and almost everything went in the garbage. My Thanksgiving dinner at 10:30 that night consisted of scrambled eggs and some smothered green beans that hadn't been warmed to death.

I told you it was a sad story. Now quit laughing!

It's time to announce the winner of the Primrose Lane quilt kit. It was thoroughly touching to read all of your Thanksgiving memories. A few of you even made me cry. The little snot a/k/a Penny finally cooperated after much coaxing and pulled a name from the bag. The winner of the quilt kit is ....... GWEN!

Gwen said...
One of our most memorable Thanksgivings was during Desert Storm. Our youngest son was in the Navy and in the Gulf. We celebrated with longtime friends. One family's son was also in the Navy, the other's in the Air Force. That one was the only one at home. We all hosted trainees from local military bases. Signed up for 2 per family. When my DH went to pick up our guest he was told they needed hosts for another group that had just arrived the night before. He filled up the car and brought those home. Then he and the other husbands retuned to get four more each. 6 became 20! We had plenty of food, lots of fun and everyone called home after dessert!

Congratulations, Gwen! Since you don't have a blog, please email me with your mailing address!

But there was one more element to this give-away. I said that I'd be looking for something in the winner's comment or on her blog, and if I found it, then there would be an extra surprise in her package. A couple of posts back, I talked about Minick and Simpson and an auction they had for the Semper Fi Fund. So in that spirit, I wrote the word "military" on a Post-It Note and stuck it to my computer screen.

As you can see from Gwen's comment above, she totally met the criteria for the extra surprise. Gwen, I'm going to add seven yards of matching Primrose Lane fabric to your package for the backing for your quilt! Congratulations! And thank you for YOUR service on that Thanksgiving Day!

Thank you to everyone who participated. I'll host a couple of more give-aways before the end of the year. Please check back!

Happy Thanksgiving!