Tag Archives: Thanksgiving

Gratitude for the Now

We keep hearing the only thing most people will be grateful for this year is that 2020 will soon be over.

They want to shake off the bad 2020 Karma. Too much insanity, fear, disease, death, overload. Weariness abounds. A period of Thanksgiving in 2020?

You’ve got to be kidding.

Thanksgiving used to be the pause before going full-throttle toward a joy-filled Christmas or Hanukkah and New Year’s.

This year, many folks have already put up their Christmas trees and it’s mid-November! Seems people are so eager for something hopeful, bright, and merry, they can’t wait. These are the same people who complain about stores stocking holiday decorations in September.

How quickly we change.

There’s hardly anything to be grateful for, we reason. Nothing is the same – or even close to it. Chances are, we are staying only with those in our four wall bubble for Thanksgiving.

spiteful little girl

Another disappointment?

Bring it on…we’re getting hardened to it.

Getting hardened to more bad news is a natural self-preservation response used to keep us from melting into a whimpering puddle.

But, as I point out in my Caregiver Emotions presentations, we are NOT our emotions. Emotions are meant to come and go. If we get so intrinsically wrapped up in our emotions, we run the risk of identifying with them.

Feel resentment too often; don’t process that resentment; don’t release that resentment – then you can become resentful and bitter.

Negative emotions need to be reigned in, examined, discussed, processed, and released.

Have there really been no blessings this year?

If you are reading this, there’s a big blessing right there – you are alive! Your eyes work! Your brain works! Your technology works!

No big vacation this year?

Remember about walking the local beach on a day trip with one friend?

No party for your birthday?

How about the blessing of those working in a local restaurant so you could get takeout?

Feeling disconnected from family? How about the incredible blessing of Facetime?

How about the miracle found in the technology of a Zoom call that keeps groups together and enables weddings to be totally safe by being virtual?

“GRATITUDE IS A HEART TENDERIZER”

That’s a quote from Sarah M. Wells in her 9 Examples of Thanksgiving in the Bible. There’s so much power in that statement.

How’s your gratitude jar looking? In my first post of this year – CLICK HERE. I shared with you how to start a gratitude jar. Did you stop putting in the little blessings you were grateful for after March 17th?

Or were you like me, finding the blessings that surround us each day?

If there ever was a time to tenderize our hearts, 2020 would be it. We need to liberally sprinkle around some gratitude in our lives. Not only will it improve our general outlook, but relationships and situations will improve.

May your favorite spice be gratitude.

Stir it into every situation and interaction. It will turn the hardened days into something more tender, savory, and palatable.

Happy Thanksgiving dear readers – YOU are a blessing to me!

Deidre

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The Time for Thanks Has Come

AutumnleavesSTAs the temperatures start falling, along with the glorious and colorful leaves, our attentions turn inward and homeward to Thanksgiving! Whether you celebrate once, or several times with different groups of family and friends, this is a time of reflection and gratitude. I learned a new twist on my usual turkey and stuffing prep, and wanted to pass this along to you. See, we had our family Thanksgiving early in November this year, so this approach is fresh from the kitchen and just in time for the actual holiday!

With two grandchildren on cranberry cleaning and culling duty, and cleaning-cranberriesthree adults to tackle everything else, this Thanksgiving was a delightful process, running like a well-oil machine, intermingled with uproarious laughter and memory making for the ages. Even after final cleanup, there was still enough energy for more laughter and stories.

Raw-Turkey-2

Our daughter created a turkey rub mixture that took a garden-variety-store-label-turkey into the moistest and most flavor-infused turkey I have ever eaten!

Moistness had usually been a hit-or-miss thing for me; but this rub will take chance and good luck out of the recipe, and should guarantee great results every time.

Into our small food processor, Serena put the following ingredients:

Turkey rub:

Rosemary-food-talk-4-you
Sprig of Rosemary

1 cup sauteed onions and red bell pepper

5 – 6 cloves of raw garlic

1/2 stick of butter

Large sprig of rosemary

Handful of parsley

Several sprigs of thyme

Dash of cuminHappy-Thanksgiving-2

Salt

Pepper

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor and rub underneath the skin on the breast of the turkey, inside the cavity, and all over the top.

Measurements are Happy-Thanksgiving-3approximate. 🙂

The turkey was baked covered with foil until about the last 30-45 minutes until the pop-up timer came up.

Even our cornbread stuffing/dressing seemed extra special this year. The non-dressing lovers among us couldn’t get enough! Here’s what we did:

Stuffing:

gluten-free-cornbreadGluten-free corn bread made with applesauce***

3-4 slices of gluten-free bread (we used Glutino Brand, seeded bread)

One onion

3-4 cloves garlic

Poultry spice mix

Salt

Pepper

Cut the breads into cubes and toast. Sauté onion and garlic in butter. onionSeason with poultry spices, salt, pepper. Mix into toasted bread cubes. Moisten with turkey broth taken from the simmering pot of giblets destined to become gravy. When the turkey comes out, add turkey juices from the roasting pan to the stuffing.

Bake at 350 for 30 min, covered in foil.

Enjoy. 🙂

TURKEY RUB AND STUFFING RECIPE

***We had made a square pan full of cornbread using about a half-bag of Bob’s Gluten-free Corn Bread mix. After six of us all had a piece, we used the rest for the dressing. The mix seemed a little dry because it was probably more than half a bag, so we added 4 oz. of unsweetened Thanksgiving-Table-Decor-Martha-Stewart-07applesauce. The texture was less crumbly.

So, may you savor the moments with family and friends along with some savory turkey and dressing! You will find, using Serena’s method, the meat throughout the turkey will be moist and kissed with the flavors of the rub. No more dry white meat!ToolkitforWellnessBolder(1)

I hope to be publishing Toolkit for Wellness very soon! An announcement will be forth-coming!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Deidre