Thanksgiving 2015

Pretty amazing and ridiculously crazy week around our household. 18 adults, three kids under 2.5 and a dog......the dog being the biggest help by cleaning up the floor once anything was accidentally dropped....lol. It was pretty great to have some much of our family together. Doesn't very often even with our immediate family these days.

I was going to post this immediately after thanksgiving but I drag on.....not being very prompt on my writing diligence. I'm sorry. Looking at this picture makes me happy. What a silly bunch we are. I love my family.

Happy moments involved Nanee and Pop playing with the little ones. They are a handful....but a true blessed handful. We had lots of fun.

I really don't think my kids want to be like their father that much......so hilarious when they walked in the house this way. No wonder they were late for dinner! Just wait boys....before too long that will be your only styling option.

Thanks to my family for being there to enjoy the day. We really needed our family around that day. What a blessing.

Enjoy the day my friends

Eugene Thompson

ET This I Believe

Let's Talk Turkey

It's Thanksgiving time and maybe we all need to understand a little more about what we celebrate. I feel a bit confused recently as it seems that the definition has possibly changed over the years. I always thought Thanksgiving was simply about THANKS. Thankfulness for what we had been prospered with throughout the year. We all got together and had a big meal (the pilgrims and the Indians that is.......hope I didn't offend any of the pilgrims by mentioning their name). They would share a meal and share some of their blessings with each other and even talk about how thankful they were at what God had blessed them with......or Gave them.

Flash forward a few hundred years and we have made Thanksgiving the starting line for shopping for Christmas. Run, Run, Run. Some of us get an early start or even plan this event with great strategic effort. They map out their agenda with certain maps and coupons from the newspaper circling and marking them up like some sort of play book.

Speaking of play book, some of us equate Thanksgiving Day as a great day of football! Some go out and actually play football in the yard. That sounds like fun. Others just watch it on televison. Or maybe you are like me and eat a big meal and then sit down on the sofa and fall asleep. The curse of the tryptophan.

So since I am so confused, I decided to see what the dictionary had to say about certain key items of this day. This should clear it up.

Let's start with TURKEY

Tur·key   (tûrk)A country of southwest Asia and southeast Europe between the Mediterranean and the Black seas. The region was dominated by many ancient civilizations and peoples, among them the Hittites (1800 b.c.), the Greeks (8th century b.c.), and the Persians (6th century b.c.), and in a.d. 395 it became part of the Byzantine Empire. The area was conquered by the Ottoman Turks between the 13th and 15th centuries and remained the core of the Ottoman Empire for more than 600 years. Its modern history dates to the rise of the Young Turks (after 1908) and the collapse of the empire in 1918. Under the leadership of Kemal Atatürk, a republic was proclaimed in 1923. Ankara is the capital and Istanbul the largest city. Population: 71,200,000.

tur·key   (tûrk)n. pl. tur·keys

1.a. A large North American bird (Meleagris gallopavo) that has brownish plumage and a bare wattled head and neck and is widely domesticated for food.b. A related bird (Agriocharis ocellata) of Mexico and Central America, brilliantly colored and having eyelike spots on its tail.

2. Slang

a. A person considered inept or undesirable.

b. A failure, especially a failed theatrical production or movie.

3. Sports 

Three consecutive strikes in bowling.

Idiom: talk turkey Informal 

To speak frankly and get down to the basic facts of a matter.

[After Turkey from a confusion with the guinea fowl, once believed to have originated in Turkish territory.]

Hummmmm, well maybe Cranberries?

The Cranberries are an Irish rock band who formed in Limerick in 1989. The band consists of vocalist Dolores O'Riordan, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler. Although widely associated with alternative rock, the band's sound also incorporates indie pop, post-punk, Irish folk and pop rock elements.[1]

cran·ber·ry   (krnbr)n.

1. A mat-forming, evergreen shrub (Vaccinium macrocarpum) of eastern North America, having pink flowers and tart, red, edible berries.

2. The berries of this plant, used in sauces, jellies, relishes, and beverages.

3. Any of several similar or related plants, especially Vaccinium oxycoccos.

[Partial translation of Low German Kraanbere : Kraan, crane (from Middle Low German kran; see ger-2 in Indo-European roots) + bere, berry.]

Hummm, maybe Stuffing?

stuff•ing (ˈstʌf ɪŋ)

1. the act of a person or thing that stuffs.

2. a material or substance used to stuff something.

3. seasoned bread crumbs or other filling used to stuff poultry, vegetables, etc., before cooking.

Well, maybe just look up the word Thanksgiving.

thanks•giv•ing (ˌθæŋksˈgɪv ɪŋ) n.

1. the act of giving thanks.

2. an expression of thanks, esp. to God.

3. a public celebration in acknowledgment of divine favor.

4. (cap.) Thanksgiving Day.

There we go, I like that one. I should have started there!

Well, whatever it means.....I think I will go help mix up some cranberry salad, cook some turkey, mix some other fixins' together and sit down with my family to eat. After that I intend on falling asleep on the sofa with my new grandson while watching the football game........and all of that......I am Thankful for!

Many Blessings to you my friends.

Eugene Thompson

ET This I Believe

Thanksgiving Traditions

Here we are again at another holiday time already.  Can you believe it is Thanksgiving already? Where did the year go? Our family has had so many traditions over the years (from when I was a small child) that it just becomes...well... a bit silly. I begun writing down some of these things in this blog so that my children...and maybe one day grandchildren would know about how it all began. And how goofy this whole family is. Okay maybe goofy really describes just me.

I looked over my old blogs to see what I wrote about Thanksgiving before and realized there was only one post.  If you would like to re-read it: http://etsthisibelieve.blogspot.com/2011/11/feathered-beast-feast.html

Thanksgiving is sort of a trial run before Christmas on all the food and festivities. Over the years we have morphed some of the traditions to better fit our own family and also what tools we have to make dinner with.  It is kind of like the story about the granddaughter was preparing a ham for dinner and they were following all the ingredients to cook a ham and had all the things in place but one odd fact about the traditional recipe was a big chuck of the ham was cut off.....why was that? The granddaughter called her mother and asked her about this recipe and what was she supposed to do with this chunk of ham that was cut off and why was it cut off.  The mother simply responded that she didn't know.....she just always did it because grandma did it for all those years.  So the mother called her mother, the grandma, and asked her why did we always cut off a chunk of the ham.  All the ingredients were followed and the tradition was to cut off a piece of the ham.  The grandmother just laughed and said, no silly that wasn't a tradition.....that was because that was the largest roasting pan we had so I had to cut a piece off for it to fit!  Traditions....how they began.

The Thompson Cranberry Salad started long ago but I believe that our family cannot truly take credit for it. I know I added "Thompson" in front of it so we would clarify that it wasn't just any ordinary cranberry salad. Story goes that many years ago my great grandparents had worked for a wealthy family during the depression and it was one of their favorite holiday dishes.....not as exciting as "bringing it over from the ol' country". My oldest son said, "You mean we stole our family tradition from someone else...that sounds like our family." But we have made it special by never making any other time but Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. The process has become a tradition, no one but "family" gets the recipe.  Everyone else calls it "PINK STUFF". Cutting the grapes, which takes hours, has become a sort of indoctrination into the family. We don't have the big grinder my mother had so we need to improvise on some of the kitchen tools. Most of the time this is always done the evening before.

My father was always the creative individual who made up stuff all the time. I guess that is where I get it from. I should mention that he was also the goofiest person I ever knew as well.  I guess that is where I get THAT from too. I miss him during these times. Just wish my kids could have met him. One of the "after products" of making the cranberry salad is when we drain the ground cranberries.  It produces a very sweet syrup that as a young child we had always tossed it out (best I can remember) just too sweet to do anything else with it. My father, one time decided to mix in some soda with it. 7UP to be exact. It produced the famous cranberry drink we have with the meal.  Unfortunately it was usually only one glass because there was only some much to go around.

Typically the tried and true method of mixing the liquids is to slowly pour it into a separate pitcher.  However, if you don't drink it all you cannot save it because the soda will loose it's fizz. We have tried many different methods of mixing the drink over the years such as pouring the cranberry syrup into the soda bottle.....that produces a pink volcano!  we have also switched to diet 7UP due to all us diabetics in the family.....save a few calories.

Another one is the Party Mix. Not sure when this began but it is a spin off of the Chex Party Mix. The Thompson's of course make a bit of their own modifications to the ingredients one being Honeycombs. Mostly it is the assortment of cereals that are on the box but some additives. Other have chosen to add some of their own favorite cereals, but I stick with the original mix that Dad always made. Sometimes this doesn't get made just due to the shear size of all the food stuff we make. This year we forgot. So maybe we will make it in between the two holidays to keep up with some snacks.

This year the new tradition is heading out for a run on Thanksgiving Day morning.  My wife and I will be doing a 10K Turkey Trot. After all we need to burn off a few calories before the big meal. Is was a nice brisk run but we accomplished it. I did it just a few seconds over one hour....need to work on my time! This may end up not being an entire family thing but our daughter-in-law ran it with us this year too.

Enjoy your day and watch for some more posts on our traditions during the holidays.

Psalm 136 - Thanksgiving

Every year we are asked what we are thankful for. There are always so many things that you can respond to when asked that question. I often equate the response as one that resembles winning an academy award. Okay you have now won this award and you have 15 seconds to thank all the people you want.....and don't forget anyone. Yeah right.

I have always liked Psalm 136. Many years ago in Pennsylvania, several families got together on Thanksgiving and shared a meal at the church building. As a young Christian at the time I was asked to read a scripture...Psalm 136. When I read it I found many things. First it seems that no matter what you do, where you are, who you are....God's love is there for you. God's love endures forever.

Secondly, throughout all the chapter it seems a bit redundant with God's love endures forever over and over.....right...it does....no matter what...his love endures.

The third thing I noticed about the scripture is that years later we were having the same meal again with many of the same people at the same building. However I had grown spiritually and learned a lot over the years.  We were getting ready to move away from our church family there in Allentown and move closer to Philadelphia.  I read the scripture again......funny thing it meant something entirely different. The words were the same, the meaning was the same....it was just that the scripture had grown with me. I had moved on from milk to more meat. I changed, God's word never does...but his love endures forever.

My friends, remember to have a safe thanksgiving and enjoy each and every moment with your family.

Psalm 136

New King James Version (NKJV)

Thanksgiving to God for His Enduring Mercy

136 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
    For His mercy endures forever.
² Oh, give thanks to the God of gods!
    For His mercy endures forever.
³ Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords!
    For His mercy endures forever:

⁴ To Him who alone does great wonders,
    For His mercy endures forever;
⁵ To Him who by wisdom made the heavens,
    For His mercy endures forever;
⁶ To Him who laid out the earth above the waters,
    For His mercy endures forever;
⁷ To Him who made great lights,
    For His mercy endures forever—
⁸ The sun to rule by day,
    For His mercy endures forever;
⁹ The moon and stars to rule by night,
    For His mercy endures forever.

¹⁰ To Him who struck Egypt in their firstborn,
    For His mercy endures forever;
¹¹ And brought out Israel from among them,
    For His mercy endures forever;
¹² With a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm,
    For His mercy endures forever;
¹³ To Him who divided the Red Sea in two,
    For His mercy endures forever;
¹⁴ And made Israel pass through the midst of it,

For His mercy endures forever;
¹⁵ But overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea,
    For His mercy endures forever;
¹⁶ To Him who led His people through the wilderness,
    For His mercy endures forever;
¹⁷ To Him who struck down great kings,
    For His mercy endures forever;
¹⁸ And slew famous kings,
    For His mercy endures forever—
¹⁹ Sihon king of the Amorites,
    For His mercy endures forever;
²⁰ And Og king of Bashan,
    For His mercy endures forever—
²¹ And gave their land as a heritage,
    For His mercy endures forever;
²² A heritage to Israel His servant,
    For His mercy endures forever.

²³ Who remembered us in our lowly state,
    For His mercy endures forever;
²⁴ And rescued us from our enemies,
    For His mercy endures forever;
²⁵ Who gives food to all flesh,
    For His mercy endures forever.

²⁶ Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven!
    For His mercy endures forever.

The Feathered Beast ..... Feast

The day has finally arrived....you know the day....the day where we turn the corner for the beginning of the new year.....37 DAYS AHEAD of schedule......you know the day where you are supposed to begin shopping for everyone else......and get in debt.....you know the day where you begin the onslaught of family members visits.....and pull your hair out......you know the day when the sacred family traditions kick in.....so much work.....you know the day when football starts to get really exciting......college bowl games, NFL playoffs......you know the day when the refrigerator is so packed full that you cannot get one thing out of it without ten other things falling out at the same time......yeah, that day THANKSGIVING!

The day that you go through the routine of telling of what you are so thankful for.....instead of being thankful all year long. Yep, we did that at church last night....it is always good to hear.  Actually there is way too much to be thankful for....God has been good.......(okay that was the serious part of the blog....now on to ridiculousness).

My wife and I have been working on running lately...okay so I have been working on running....she has actually been running. This year we made an agreement that we would run the Turkey Trot 5K in the morning....thinking that it was going to be like at 8AM.....it was scheduled for 9:45AM...WHAT? That is way to late.....okay, we can still do it.....oh it was in the 40s this morning.....THAT IS TOO FREAKIN COLD.....nix that idea.....I will jump on the treadmill later.

One of the things we always do is have this massive meal.....and I mean massive. Food everywhere piled up on counters and tables and wherever it will fit until we can possible start the feeding frenzy.  A task that always takes place before the feast is going to the grocery store and buying all the things necessary to prepare for the festivities.  The first being the Aw aspiring featured beast.....the Turkey! It is the only food (for our family), no ham, no roast, just this BIG FAT BIRD! We have always had to get the biggest bird possible to feed everyone and still provide enough leftovers....Leftovers are always a must! Shopping is required early enough so that we can have a good selection. Cooking the bird isn't that bad now that we have a system....listen to me talk....now that my wife has the system! Several years back, my mother bought us a roaster.  We have used it ever since, turkey cooked perfect, moist, delicious and in 1/3 rd the time.....No waking up at 4 or 5AM to start the meal......there is plenty of time to go for a run.......by the way, my wife is currently running outside right now while I type away sitting in bed.......what a slacker I am!

The other part of our tradition is the Thompson Cranberry Salad.  A massive under taking each year to first buy the best of the red grapes no you cannot use green and seedless grapes really are not seedless....you still need to cut in half by hand and if you can get real cranberries,whipping cream no you cannot use cool whip....not always easy depending on location and how the growing season has been. No substitutions in the formula either....yes I said formula....it is scientific marvel that is scrumptious for your mouth!  My mother-in-law once thought that it must be good for you since my family was diabetic...HA HA HA.....We are diabetic BECAUSE of the cranberry salad! But honestly, why live if you cannot have Thompson Cranberry Salad. It is just too good. You have to grind the cranberries the night before so you can drain them.  We have had to be creative over the years in figuring out how to GRIND the cranberries...after all, my mom has the only grinder left in the world!   Okay maybe not the only one.... My Uncle Gene wrote me on Facebook saying they had just grind the cranberries and set them to drain too.  That is awesome....oh yeah and by the way...if you want our famous recipe....cannot have it! The only way is if you marry into the family.  My daughters-in-law got the recipe once they were married! hopefully there hasnt been too many secrets given out here!

So funny, My son called me from Colorado last night 11:00 saying that they may have made a mistake....there was A LOT of cranberries...yep! We always make A LOT! They were taking it for a family event with my daughter-in-laws family.  Very cool.

Then we have the rest of the meal which is pretty much always the same.  No deviations.....this meal is not for the imaginative....just do it! Dressing, corn, mash potatoes (real potatoes) and everything else.....only time by the way that we make gravy.....just because we are supposed to! And then finally sitting down with family at the (crammed in at all corners to get a piece of) table, the blessing and then the passing of the food....around and around the turkey and dressing and potatoes and corn and green beans and and and and......it takes 15 -20 minutes (maybe a slight exaggeration) to pass all the food an get some on your plate...by the way....setting the table with enough plates, hot pads.....and whatever takes some major coordination in itself!

Such a good meal....don't clean it up...leave it there for a while because I will be back to snack on the turkey....some potatoes and of course some Cranberry salad.......yes there are pies too.....eat and eat and eat......THEN.....Turn on some football!  The kids, when they were younger, always wanted me to go out and play ball in the yard.....are you kidding...I cannot even move.....I am stuffed more than that turkey was 30 minutes ago!  No, sorry kids....now we finish off the inaugural celebration of tradition by dad doing what he does best....succumb to the curse of the THANKSGIVING TURKEY.....falling asleep on the sofa watching football........!

That my friends.....is an awesome Thanksgiving! Be thankful, be safe, enjoy family and have some merry times.  Beware.....around the corner lurks....BLACK FRIDAY!