What’s your favorite holiday movie?

Pardon me sir…but…WTF are you doing?

LifeStream Media Library

This is some of the best teaching that I have ever heard. I have mentioned Wayne Jacobsen before but wanted to focus in on this particular site because it has hours of free teaching that really gets to the heart of Christianity and is well worth your time. I can listen to Jacobsen speak for hours and never get bored. We must learn about God’s love for us before we learn anything else. If we can learn this, we may just find there is nothing left to learn.

Finish this sentence: “What in the world was I thinking when I…?”

Did you spend black Friday shopping in stores or avoiding stores?

“Just Married”

Who’s the hardest person to shop for on your holiday list?

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

THE THANKSGIVING BABY

Rustie Earle

It was great to feel your baby kick, to feel it move around.

I hope that it’s healthy and happy, born weighing seven and one half pounds.

May you always remember, this is God’s gift from above,

And may each become guilty of smothering it with love.

Give Monte and Carolyn half a chance, they’ll spoil this baby for shur.

After all, Sandy, isn’t that what grandparents are for?

I don’t know your husband’s family, and I know they don’t know me,

But a mom, a dad, two sets of grandparents, how lucky can one baby be?

Some day when this child gets older, and the two of us get real chummy,

I’ll tell of the day she kicked my hand, from inside her mother’s tummy.

The miracle of creation is enough to leave one awed,

Always be faithful, raise your children in the love of God.

May this little one have a brother or sister, and yes, I know they’ll squabble.

But I hope the first words this one says, aren’t “gobble, gobble.”

With God’s richest blessing, I remain your friend, Rustie aka Russell

Written September 27, 1997

for Jordan,

born Thanksgiving day

27 November 1997

7 lbs. 6 oz.

ADDITIONAL READING:

WHAT? NO PUMPKIN PIE FOR THANKSGIVING?

A THANKSGIVING POEM

THE THANKSGIVING TURKEY

TURDUCKIN

To read a post about the birthmother in LEFTOVER TURKEY:

PENNSYLVANIA WEDDING, (LAMOINE) MAINE ROOTS

This very important article, by Wayne Jacobsen, has been posted on the Re-Union site for some time.  I thought it would be good to draw attention to it from this blog, as well.

Click:  OUTSIDE THE WALLS

What are you thankful for?

“Wedding Rings”

Will you be hosting Thanksgiving in your home or going somewhere else for Thanksgiving?

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

TURDUCKIN

Tradition!

     Our family is like many others during the holidays. We have traditions. For instance, a turkey adorns our Thanksgiving table, and often stuffed Cornish hens appear on our Christmas or New Years day menu.

     We also have another tradition. Thanksgiving and other holidays are usually celebrated the day after the holiday, allowing our son to holiday at his in-laws, our granddaughter to visit her father’s family, and my daughter to visit her in-laws. The actual holidays offer us a usually welcomed respite, a day of rest.

     This year our new neighbors invited us to join their dinner table, so we invaded their home Thanksgiving afternoon.

     My head turned in surprise in hearing a strange word in a conversation: turducken.

     Turducken? It had been spoken by Dan, the host for the day. It was the first time I heard someone mention the word.

     “Turducken?” I questioned, looking to see if some were on the table. “Where do you get turducken around here?”

     Dan explained it was an entrée made with chicken, duck and turkey.

     “It’s so difficult to make people order it,” he noted.

     When I returned home I looked up a piece in my 1997 commentary collection:

From Marietta, Georgia: Tired of Thanksgiving turkey? (never!)

     Not enthused about another roast chicken? A duck just isn’t big enough for your brood?

     Turducken’s apparent creator, Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme, claims he made his first tri-bird in the 1960s. It is difficult, treacherous and complicated to make, he states, this in agreement with Dan.

     Turducken begins with a 20-25 pound turkey.  The duck and chicken are smaller. All are deboned, keeping their skin and meat intact, and assembled with the center chicken in the center surrounded by the duck and wrapped in turkey.

     “The turkey’s skin is sewed and trussed around the layers of meat and stuffing, so the whole thing resembles the original bird, including the wings and legs…The finished product is roasted just like a regular turkey…”

     Well, I’ll be…I guess tradition can evolve, change, grow. The origin and one version of this product is assembled in a Marietta processing kitchen. Marietta…traditionally known for a chicken restaurant with a Big Chicken landmark.

     So Dan reminded me of the article in which I first read about turducken (in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on November 27, 1997).

     Then, last year my nephew Justin, a chef, cooked turduckin for a holiday meal for my sister. They froze a piece for me. Pretty good tasting.

     But I ask, cannot anyone leave tradition alone? I relate with the father in Fiddler on the Roof. Tradition, tradition…Leave my turkey, chicken and duck ALONE!

ADDITIONAL READING:

WHAT? NO PUMPKIN PIE FOR THANKSGIVING?

A THANKSGIVING POEM

THE THANKSGIVING TURKEY

The Thanksgiving Baby

To read a post about the birthmother in The Thanksgiving Turkey and The Thanksgiving Baby:

PENNSYLVANIA WEDDING, (LAMOINE) MAINE ROOTS

“Husband and Wife”

What’s the most drastic change you’ve ever made to your appearance?

My blogging buddy Leese from Living Me101 recently awarded me with the very first EVER “Left Of Center Award.”

CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT!

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS is awarding a monthly prize to the reader who makes the most comments at www.carolyncholland.wordpress.com. To enter, comment on any post. The more comments you post, the greater chance you have of winning. For further details click on http://carolyncholland.wordpress.com/monthly-prize-for-comments/ or visit the page MONTHLY PRIZE FOR COMMENTS at the top of the column to the right.

THE THANKSGIVING TURKEY

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

      I found the perfect card for my granddaughter’s ninth birthday—one that will make her eyes roll. The front has a sepia picture of a girl whose hair, dress and boots are quite old fashioned. She is holding a platter with a small cooked turkey on it.

     Inside it says Happy Birthday You Turkey

     OK, so you’re eyes are rolling too, as do the eyes of others who overhear me trying to calm Jordan when she’s out of control.

     “Unruffle your turkey feathers!” I demand.

     Or when I’m affectionate with her.

     “You turkey,” I grin.

     Most of the time over-hearers just give me “that look” that says “How could you insult such a cute child?” “Get your grandparenting skills in order!” or “I’m reporting you for abuse!”

     And I verbally retort “She comes by it righteously. She is a turkey.”

     I then provide a pregnant pause before adding “She was born on Thanksgiving Day!”

     Each year I remind Jordan a of the 1997 Thanksgiving Day when our properly prepared turkey sat in the refrigerator rather than the oven. Sandy and her ex-husband G. called us—they were going to the hospital finally to welcome Jordan into the world.

     She arrived at 5:05 p.m. November 27, 1997. Shortly thereafter her eyes were wide open, taking in the world with all its newness and surprises.

     While anticipating her birth I sat in the family waiting room reminiscing a very different type of “birth” twenty-seven years earlier.

     Sandy was born May 17, 1970. Monte and I weren’t present—we weren’t her bioparents. We didn’t even learn of her arrival until she was two weeks old. While awaiting Jordan’s arrival I wondered how Sandy’s welcome into the world compared to the love and family present for Jordan.

     A week after we were informed of Sandy’s arrival Monte went to work as usual. I went strawberry picking an hour away from home with a close friend, Shirl Murray. I confided my frustration to her about having a daughter but not being privy to any information on her condition (due to low birth weight she was cared for in a neo-natal hospital unit) or when I could finally hold her, counting her fingers and toes.

     When I arrived home I called the adoption agency, intent on learning something. They said they’d been trying to reach us (this was pre-cell phone). Sandy had been discharged. She could come home.

     We drove to Pittsburgh. We weren’t allowed to dress our daughter—we had to hand her outfit over to a maternity home staff member and watch as she dressed Sandy. Our daughter was “born” to us late that afternoon when the worker finally placed her in my arms.

     Sandy has two families, one biological and one environmental. She’s made peace with the broken threads.

     I’ve watched her grow as a person through her parenting experience. She’s a good mom.

     Jordan too has broken threads. Her dad left the family when she was three. Her home was broken into and she’s lost a precious cat (her grandparent’s pet, Gizmo) and her lovable dog Heidi.

     Although I’ll miss the eight-year old Jordan the newly nine-year old is a joy to be around. She is fun loving, pulling occasional stunts on her grandmother. She is sociable but reserved, and appreciates her new friend who recently moved nearby. Her responsibility is demonstrated when she rises easily in the morning and prepares for school, making the school bus on time; or when she watches the clock as she plays games on the computer. She loves animals, especially dogs and horses—but any animal will do. She’s independent, as most nine-year olds are, yet more communicative than ever before. Yesterday she told me she earned an A on two tests, math and spelling.

     Thanksgiving will come and go before she has her birthday this year. On her original Thanksgiving birthday we began to know who she was. On her first birthday she was a good-natured child forever running headlong into life, loving it. On her second birthday trains were the best. On her ninth birthday she is on the cusp of being a young lady.

     Jordan is the spitting image of her mother, people tell me. Yet she has some of her father in her too.

     She connects her mother with the future, a special gift she is not aware she is giving.

     This Thanksgiving we not only celebrate the joys of an almost nine-year old granddaughter, but the joys of two grandsons, two-and-a-half year old V. and half-year old M., both children of my son and his wife.

     We also welcome K. deeper into our family with her three children, Julia, Joshua and J. (a child born on my own birthday). They are a new addition, due to the death of both of K’s parents. But that is another story, for another time.

     HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

ADDITIONAL READING:

WHAT? NO PUMPKIN PIE FOR THANKSGIVING?

The Thanksgiving Baby

TURDUCKIN

A THANKSGIVING POEM

To read a post about the birthmother in The Thanksgiving Turkey and The Thanksgiving Baby:

PENNSYLVANIA WEDDING, (LAMOINE) MAINE ROOTS

MORE:

We’re Adopting a Baby! Part 1

BEAR STORIES ACROSS THE NATION

BUSY—I’M SO BUSY!!! Lent Devotion #28

Characteristics of healthy families

“Bridesmaid in Blue”

What game show or reality show would you kick butt on?

This very important article, by Wayne Jacobsen, has been posted on the Re-Union site for some time.  I thought it would be good to draw attention to it from this blog, as well.

Click:  OUTSIDE THE WALLS

This very important article, by Wayne Jacobsen, has been posted on the Re-Union site for some time.  I thought it would be good to draw attention to it from this blog, as well.

Click:  OUTSIDE THE WALLS