Happy Thanksgiving!

To all our American friends who are celebrating today!



I'm thankful for all of you who follow us and comment and keep us company. We appreciate you!

I'm thankful for Kealie and Jenny and Megan -- who make the Menagerie a fun place to hang out. I'm so glad fate brought us together.

I'm thankful for my editor and the readers who've supported me.

What are you thankful for?

None is more impoverished than the one who has no gratitude. Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy. ~Fred De Witt Van Amburgh

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a crazy and amazing year it has been! Now is a perfect time to be a little introspective and realize how truly blessed life has been. It's so easy to caught up in the small stuff and forget to see the good stuff.

I'm so truly fortunate to live in the United States, and I'm so very thankful for the men and women who serve our country. My DH served in the Navy during Desert Storm, and my father was in WWII. I have many relatives who have served, and I can't begin to express how grateful I am to their sacrifices.

I am having my first contracted story released next year! How exciting and amazing is THAT? Less than two years ago I was challenged to write an erotic short story (which was subsequently published on the Whipped Cream Reviews site) and then Kealie and I challenged each other to write something a little longer. "Shut Up & Kiss Me" was the result.

This segues nicely into my thankfulness for my friends. There are days I don't know how I'd get by without them. They may not say or do much, but just knowing they're there (IRL or virtually) with a heart for me is so incredible.

My thanks for family is also something that needs expressing. Don't we take them for granted a little too much? I forget some days how my DH expresses his love for me by doing things. He works outside the home so I don't have to, fixed the cars, cares for the house, and so much more. Even when he drives me crazy, I need to remember that he's a good man.

I could go on and on... the little things and the big things are just such blessings.

What are you thankful for this year?

Pondering Joy and Thanks This Week

As my sweet monkeys decided that they needed to give food to those families who don't have that opportunity (entirely without our prompting) I was dumbfounded. Did I teach this to them? They got together three whole boxes of groceries that are non-perishable and a full Thanksgiving meal for some of those that are less fortunate than we are. They're good kids and it got me to thinking.

I look forward this week to spending time with my extended family as those of us who celebrate Thanksgiving here in the states gather to show our thanks for our family and friends and those around us. I think of my friends who are deployed and my family stationed in other places who won't be able to join us. I think about the family members that we have lost so recently and the fact that this will be our first big holiday without them. I think about the friends that I made this year, and hope they have a happy holiday... and the friends who have been my friends for a long time as well.

I am incredibly thankful for that family I will be spending time with this year, both the family I was born into and the family that I married into. They are amazing people and while I am usually exhausted after a day with them... I wouldn't have it any other way.

I am thankful that I live in a country where we are proud of our service men and women who go forward and do their best to secure freedom where they can. I am thankful to their families, as we ARE their families sometimes. I know how hard it is to watch the one you love walk away and go into battle and fear that you may never see them again. I know the sheer gratitude each time you get an email or phone call or they step off that plane/bus/transport and see their gorgeous face again.

I am thankful that I had the opportunity to know the family members we lost. They were absolutely amazing people and they are truly missed. They left a legacy of love and joy and even peace in all our lives. And I'm thankful my children will have such wonderful memories of these amazing souls.

I am thankful for my new friends and for my old friends. The ones who make me laugh even when I want to cry, and the ones who have seen me cry so much they know just what to say to pull me back from the edge. And all the ladies that I write with and work with who have become my rocks when I feel like I'm going under. All my author friends who poke me when I disappear too long with a loud, "Hey, what's up with you, girl?" Or the ones who corner me in a chat and make sure I know they've been thinking of me and hope all is well in my world. Well, for all y'all out there... I hope you know what you mean to me, I am so very thankful for every single one of you and hope you never have any reason to doubt that.

So, how about you? What are you thankful for this year? Are there people in your life that you wish you could make sure they knew how much you appreciated them, adored them? What are your plans for this coming holiday... if you even celebrate it? I hope everyone has a great time and that everyone remembers what they need to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving and we can move into the Christmas holidays. Enjoy! :-D

Thursday Thirteen: Thanksgiving Day

Thirteen Pieces of Thanksgiving and turkey Trivia

13. The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade tradition began in the 1920's.

12. Congress passed an official proclamation in 1941 and declared that now onwards Thanksgiving will be observed as a legal holiday on the fourth Thursday of November every year.

11. Sarah Josepha Hale, an editor with a magazine, started a Thanksgiving campaign in 1827 and it was result of her efforts that in 1863 Thanksgiving was observed as a day for national thanksgiving and prayer.

10. Californians are the largest consumers of turkey in the United States.

9. Domesticated turkeys or the farm-raised turkeys cannot fly.

8. According to an estimate, during the Thanksgiving holiday more than 45 million turkeys are cooked and around 525 million pounds of turkey is eaten.

7. The red fleshy growth from the base of the beak that hangs down over the beak is called 'snood'. It is very long on male turkeys.

6. An estimate of 50% of Americans put stuffing inside the the turkey. The other 50% keeps stuffing as a separate side dish to the meal. Which way do you prefer?

5. The Pilgrims did NOT wear big buckles on their shoes and hats. I know we all think it a trademark of the Pilgrims though somewhere along the line this was made up! Buckles were not actually in style until the late 1600s - especially during the Salem Witch Trials.

4. In 1947, the first Presidential pardon was ceremoniously given to a turkey.

3. As far back as 1000 A.D., Native American Indians raised turkeys for food. Aztec Indians in Mexico were raising them as early as 200B.C.

2. THREE is the number of places nationwide named after the holiday's tasty gobbler. Turkey, Texas, is the most populous, with 496 residents; followed by Turkey Creek, La. (357); and Turkey, N.C. (267). There also are 16 townships around the country named "Turkey," three of them in Kansas.

1. A spooked turkey can run 20 MPH.

Thanks!

Truthfully, aside from listing those things for which I am thankful (My daughter, my husband, my pets, a home, food, a writing career), I'm a bit blank as to what to write today. It's been a long month, with my routine in disarray because of several unplanned events. My brain just isn't working the way it should! So, instead I'll give you a few quotes about gratitude and Thanksgiving:

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. ~H.U. Westermayer

It is literally true, as the thankless say, that they have nothing to be thankful for. He who sits by the fire, thankless for the fire, is just as if he had no fire. Nothing is possessed save in appreciation, of which thankfulness is the indispensable ingredient. But a thankful heart hath a continual feast. ~W.J. Cameron

And one last one, not quite so serious:

I love Thanksgiving turkey. It's the only time in Los Angeles that you see natural breasts. ~Arnold Schwarzenegger

Happy Thanksgiving to all our American friends!