November 24, 2006--Giving thanks

We were supposed to have gone to my husband's grandparent's house yesterday for Thanksgiving, but Grandpa wasn't feeling well. My mother-in-law called me the night before to tell me that Thanksgiving had been cancelled.

The problem both of us had is that neither of had any thanksgiving dinner items purchased to make Thanksgiving on our own. I had an abundance of peanut butter and jelly that I had bought to fill the gaps between Thanksgiving dinners, and she had some deer meat that someone had given them, but that was about it. She was telling me that her kids were upset because they don't like deer meat. I told her that I love deer meat, but I hate peanut butter and jelly. Of course, peanut butter and jelly is their favorite! So we had the bright idea to get together and her house and share what we have.

It's amazing what you can come up with when you don't think you have anything. I decided to make some dinner rolls, too. After all, I still had flour and eggs and yeast. I also made a huge batch of oatmeal cookies. I found some rice and cooked it up, made a cheese sauce with Velveeta, and put some cooked broccoli that I had into it. I also had some carrots and celery, so I cut them up and brought them. I talked to my mother-in-law on the phone Thanksgiving morning and found out she had baked eight pies the night before, so I brought a container of Cool-Whip we had left over from apple crisp. She had three potatoes and I had seven, so we took them all and made mashed potatoes. She made a meatloaf from ground venison, and some of her daughters pooled their money and bought some hamburger to make meatballs since they don't like venison. She had also made deviled eggs and sweet potato casserole to take to her mother's house, so she still had those, plus some more cookies she had baked. My mother found out that we were having to come up with an impromptu Thanksgiving dinner and sent over a bag of chicken quarters. We ended up having a LOT of food!

You don't need to have a turkey to be thankful. Just being content with what you have is plenty. We enjoyed a day spent with family after all, and had plenty of reason to be thankful. Besides, we'll get turkey today, as today is Thanksgiving with my side of the family. We also had turkey on Sunday with my husband's other grandparents. Who needs turkey three times in a week, anyway? Venison is actually pretty traditional, and I love venison. That was some of the best meatloaf I've ever eaten!