Thanksgiving

It's a day I love, lots of food, friends and family, or just friends or just family and NO presents! I am sure I have mentioned that before but I think it bears repeating cause it's one of the things I love about this holiday season! It's a great gathering time and there is no pressure. It's one of those you can pull off as a potluck or totally formal with name cards and all, you make it your own, you can change it up each year or you can continue with those traditions you love yearly. It's a make it your own sort of thing in my book and no two years have ever looked the same for us. That being said there are some standards. We have certain traditions that no matter where we are we try to keep.

 Breakfast...Nutella filled croissants! These are not a tradition, but it may become one! These brought back memories from our time in Italy. Especially staying here in Rome!

 
Serving at the dining hall is something we have done for many years. In the early days we served Airmen. Since times are tough, the dining hall has opened it's doors to the public (those who hold id cards in some form) and now we mostly serve retirees. I mean where else can you get a complete Thanksgiving dinner for around $5.00?!?

 Ready to serve!

 MiB helping the ladies with their trays!

As far as other traditions go a lot of ours have to do with food...one of those for us is NOODLES, hello, can you really have Thanksgiving without NOODLES? I think not. Turkey, yeah, you CAN have Thanksgiving without that at our place, in fact it's been happenin for years that way. We are ham people and this year we are not even that! So take that Porky and Tom! Simply put if you the have noodles, you need mashed potatoes, so we have those as well. Then you must also have SWEET POTATOES, the kind that you bake in the oven with mini marshmallows on top, after you've candied the potatoes in butter and brown sugar, oh yeah, those are the ones we really love. Then there is the PIE...no matter your choices you gotta have pie. For us the traditional pumpkin is a must. It's LilBlue's fav, MiB loves it too and I am very fond of it as well so it's a big seller in our world. Lastly there are the ROLLS. Rolls are big for us, we have our favorites, we have our "those'll do" and we have our "absolutely not". I used to always do the frozen ones that you thaw, let rise and bake, but after a couple not so great turn out pans I have moved on to find other brands that will work. Right now this is this year's winner. I hope they work out for us! We had them at a friend's house and thought they were great.

I am seriously thankful for many, many things today. For LilBlue and her schooling going so well, for MiB and his contentment most days in this assignment, even more importantly that he has a job in this economy, I am really thankful for that! It's a tough market out there on several avenues and I feel we are blessed to be where we are. I am thankful for the looks like it is sold house deal! Thankful for solid running cars with no car payments, for family that we have a relationship with and even those we don't, never know what a new day will bring. I am thankful for the unconditional love MiB continues to shower on me, I know I pale in comparison in return but we are still working daily at our union doing what it takes to sustain and make it solid, I am thankful we are still committed to our marriage. I am thankful for the relationship with LilBlue that we have as well even though I still wish she were here with us...

My favorite INDIANS! LOL

So Happy Thanksgiving!!! I hope you have much you are giving thanks for today (and everyday in your world). I think we take too much for granted, I know I make a conscious effort to be thankful and I miss the mark often! I am trying to invest more time and effort in what matters, to shed the superficial, to purge the excess so to speaks, it's tough, but it's a work in progress that I am happy to working through. I hope it is helping to prepare me for our next chapter, whatever that may be...