Thanksgiving Rewarmed: A Bird's Eye View

Surprise!
I didn't write this post!

Recently I've read several blog posts written by a 'guest writer'.
When my niece asked me if I'd like her to man my camera on our 'Thanksgiving day revisited', I was happy to hand it over.  After all, when I'm busy trying to coordinate getting all the food finished & set out and doing the required hostess duties I find it difficult to get all the pictures I'd like. Then the idea occurred to me that it would be fun just to have her write my blog post from her perspective.

Here you go--Straight from the mouth & eye of The Prairie Hen. 
Thank you Raimie! 

Love,
Auntie Em

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(updated 12/15 -- too many typing errors... just in case you actually thought I know everything! Ha!)

Dear Readers,

We are a strange family.

I mean, how many Thanksgivings do you have in a year?

Just the one? Boy are you missing out!

We like Thanksgiving so much that sometimes if the mood hits we have two.

This year was one of those years where everyone flew the coop and went off in different directions for the actual Holiday. That seems to be happening more often as the years go by… As children grow up, get married, have babies… and suddenly there are in-laws to share the day with, babies to get sick, longer treks to get home and so forth.

Has that happened in your family? What gives?

How dare these young rap-scallions come up with ideas and notions of their own on where they will be for Thanksgiving? The scandal! The outrage! The injusti---

What? Me? Oh, yeah! I AM one of those hooligans!
I have been known to follow odd whims… I take off to parts unknown with my family to have Thanksgiving with people who I’ve never met before… in their home where I’ve never been… People I became friends with over the Internet.

I’m pretty much the epitome of the sort of scoundrels have gone and messed-up the way Thanksgivings used to be.

So we recreated it for the sake of remembering how they once were…
That’s what my Auntie Em decided, planned and pulled-off.

 

(This was the invitation)

A second Thanksgiving Day.
A second day to give thanks for family, friends, and FOOD.

In December.Novel idea, eh?
Here’s a peek…

 

First off, I wanna say that I love my Auntie Lu’s country house, the whole place actually. Mr. Loggerhead and I almost lived there for a while and we were married in the barn. I chased chickens, watched my cousin ride his goat, slept in the haymow, and giggled with my girl-cuz’s late into the night at this place. I think a bit of my heart has seeped out and has lodged itself in the rustic wood and country charm of my Auntie’s 'farm'.

I’m so glad my Auntie Em and her family are living there now.
Now it’s My Auntie’s House twice over.

Auntie Em has a knack with Autumn décor. Her halls were decked all right! (Oh, wait! I guess that's Christmas... whatever!)

Even if it was frigid December outside. We were still in the grasp of Autumn’s colorful and blustery embrace once we stepped inside

There were places for everyone.

We missed the one’s who couldn't be there. It wasn’t quite the same without them.

We were thankful for the spots that were filled.

And for the people who filled them.

These are my people. Many have been a part of my world ever since I was born.

Here’s a little history for you...

My Grandmother, her parents, her good friends and their mutual set of nine children started the original Thanksgiving tradition--- No, not the Plymouth rock version with buckled shoes and  feathered head-dresses-- Our family’s version. Ours doesn't include loin-clothes.

It did involve eating (pretty typical) and poetry.

You aren’t hearing things, I said poetry.

Note: we’re talking in the literal sense here. Not, “The gravy pooled on my plate and beckoned me to drizzle another delectable drop into my already overflowing maw. The taste of the turkey with cranberry sauce was sheer poetry.”

No, like the POEM RECITATION kind of poetry.
Have you heard of that?

In the beginning they did it because they felt like many of the old, classic poems were practically dead to the younger generations and they wanted to change that. It continued because we are weird… Did I say that? I meant, because we are a poetic, reciting, rhyming, lyrical bunch.

-- Yes, OK, coulda’ just left it at weird.

Saturday’s festivities involved eating.
Here is where I excel.
That and sticking a camera (Auntie Em’s in this case) in everyone’s face.

The food was everything it should be for a sorta-Thanksgving… just different enough that we didn’t feel like we were eating left-over’s…

Just reminiscent enough to knock down the guilt barriers and allow us to get down to gobbler business with no shame. Thanksgiving comes but once a year-- errrrrrr... well, never-mind!

The crew was jolly and well-rounded despite missing a few faces. We were sad that an ice storm kept a few of our party from their planned arrival. We all ate extra portions in their honor.

We laughed.

We talked.

 We ate.
Does that sound about like your Thanksgiving?

Our's might have been slightly more American Gothic than yours.

Maybe?

--- Was your's this photogenic?

Yeesh!

Some people have ALL the luck.

How about this talented?

(Myself loudly excluded)

I can brag on them because they are so much more talented than I will ever be.

And one of them happens to be my littlest sister. It’s my job to be proud of her. Oh, and to mortally embarrass her on a regular basis. Everyone must have a purpose in life, right?

Did I mention that the girls severely out-numbered the boys?

And they matched (unplanned but very nice for pictures).

I imagine they looked like quite the herd of girly, giggling, female-ness descending on those poor boys… a red tidal wave of sugar and spice. They never knew what hit ‘em.

 My daughter was so pleased to have so many girls to play with. Her mama loved watching her enjoy herself…

She’s the bright flowery spot in my life, after all. Like those boys, her daddy still doesn’t know what hit him!

 Poem time came before pie. No poem, no pie.

OK, we’re not that strict… in fact, this year everyone read their poems instead of memorizing them. What slackers we are becoming!

These voices reach a place in me that was planted before I can even remember. Many of the poems have been said before, in other voices.

Sometimes they are funny, sometimes inspirational, often dedicated to people whom we have all loved-- like my great grandparents who are only with us in spirit now.

It was special to see my Bee saying her sweet little verse. She’s not as shy as I was at six… We said our piece in order from youngest to oldest, which put her first… I think I would have died.

Speaking of, I just about died laughing while we played Taboo. We aren’t a very quiet bunch of cousins. Ask my grandma, she’d tell ya.

Cousins are a special brand of friends and I’ve been blessed to have a lot of them… but Nathan… well, he’s a special brand of special.
 

These pictures pretty much say it all.

Between his antics and watching little Kaela behind him... My sides hurt after we were done playing.

And the baby? Well, here's the story of Pip's Re-Thanksgiving adventure:

PIP'S RE-THANKSGIVING ADVENTURE

Once upon a time there was a baby named Pip.

He went with his mommy and big sister to a Thanksgiving-ish party one December day.

He was hungry. So he asked for some food.

"Ma-ma eh-eh-eh"

His mother was good and kind. She made sure his plate was full.

Pip was a nice sort of baby and ate up all his food without making a fuss.

His mother gazed at him wondering where he came from and how she got so lucky.

Pip asked politely to get down once he was done.

His mother obliged. She was sweet like that.

After his leisurely nap he snuggled with his Nana. He was just thinking that Nana's must have been made for cuddling when he noticed that everyone was eating pie without him.

Where's mine?, He thought. With a mere, "Ma-ma eh-eh-eh" -- a piece appeared before him in all it's glory.

What a wonderful mama, he thought as he daintily forked the perfectly prepared pastry into his mouth.

Little boy Pipster sat in a corner eating his Thanksgiving-ish pie.

He ate all he had, it wasn't half bad,

 And said, what a good boy am I.

And they all lived happily ever after.

At least they did until the precious, angelic boy, on being removed from his highchair, promptly threw-up his once so-delectable pie all over his sweet and lovely Mama.

And that was the end of that.

Thank you Auntie Em and Uncle El for having us. It was really special to be together. 

Maybe next year we'll have THREE Thanksgivings.

Love,

A Prairie Hen Baked in A Pie 

(in NE)

P.S. My Auntie Em commemorated my recent golden birthday by giving me this sign.

What do you think? I'm taking it as a compliment. {wink}

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I'm Raimie Harrison, The Prairie Hen --- Mother, Mr. Loggerhead-lover, reader, writer, crafter, homeschooler, picture-taker, floor-scrubber, clothes-washer, coffee-drinker, friend-hugger, dog-petter.

Come visit my home on the prairie!

 

And in the sleeping chamber

I'll add one more room to my house tour for now.  I still have the other 2 bedrooms to add later--and my scrapbook nook, but those will have to wait.

Like some of the rest of the rooms, this one still has some unfinished things that need done.  If I waited on everything that needs done then, well there probably would be no pictures of the house!  Some things I (can) do, some things I can't, (or won't) ha!

One of those things is painting, which I'm perfectly capable of doing.  However my husband is a pro at it, and what would take him 2 hours would take me 8.  Why would I want to waste that kind of time?

Besides, I like to make him feel useful and needed.

On the other hand sometimes a bug bites and I do crazy things that I really should probably wait for him to help on.  For instance the day that I decided I was tired of the way the furniture was arranged in our bedroom, and so I managed to move the big heavy dresser and bed around in our small room all by myself.  I'd never put the wallpaper boarder up, and If I was going to move furniture I knew I might as well get that done at  the same time.

I know he dosen't understand why I can move the furniture around by myself and yet I would prefer that he get the gas in the vehicles for me.

Don't ask me, I have no explanation for that weird quirk.

 Left side of room

Right side of room

 Looking towards doorway from the right.

There you have it.  Yes, it's quite a contrast to our other house where our room was at least 2x this size.  We used the same colors when we re-painted this room as what we had in our house in town.  We really hadn't had them all that long, we chose the colors to match our spread and we weren't tired of them.  Not only that, I had bought the boarder to match and had never put it up in the other house.

Coming up next--
Our family "Thanksgiving" day and a surprise.

Upstairs-Downstairs-

In My Ladies chamber.

That will be tomorrow.

Yesterday I created a sewing room in my upstairs bathroom.

Today I sorted, de-cluttered and cleaned my downstairs bathroom/laundry room.

Our house is 100 years old.  When it was built I'm pretty sure there were no bathrooms inside.  Sometime later these rooms were re-modeled into bathrooms.  We're guessing that the upstairs one was probably originally a bedroom, and the downstairs one was either a sitting room of some sort, or a bedroom.  I'm pretty sure this is why these bathrooms are both so large. There was a door from
the living room into the bathroom, in addition to the door by the kitchen and stairway.

From the doorway--
The large white cupboard was originally in the kitchen. The door into the living room was in the area of the sink.  These were both changed after my sister bought the house.

And yes, this room also holds my huge collection of photo albums. (Just photos) not my scrapbooks.  At least for the time being.

What??  You don't store your picture albums in your bathroom????  Hmmm.  Do you have a better idea where I should keep them?

From  the other side of the room facing the doorway.

 I moved this dresser down from the upstairs bathroom & changed places with the sewing stand.
Plenty of paint projects still need to be done...the wall--the dresser--

I LOVE this saying.  Such a good reminder.  We can be so thankful for "normal" days!

It's a bath...no it's a sewing...

No, lets just call it a multi-purpose room!!

It's been quite a while since I posted some pictures of rooms and I've been really busy lately trying to get some more cleaning out and organizing done.  Unfortunately I seem to make a huge mess in the process, and it causes more dis-organization & work needing to be done in another room.  Sometimes a room that I've already got pretty much gone thru.  Seems to be the story of my life tho.  After all, I'm *only* a stay at home mom, what else would I do, right?  RIGHT.

One of the biggest problems joys in my life is that I love creating and have way too many hobbies and things I want to do. (When I hear people say they are bored, I just grit my teeth & roll my eyes.  smile politely and wonder what they do with their time.)  There is just not enough time in my life to do all the things I want to do, and NO time to be bored!  Oh yeah, blogging comes under creating in case you were wondering!

Back to my house.  Remember-- we moved last spring.  Remember-- we moved FROM a huge house, TO a small house. Remember-- I have stuff.  Alot of stuff.  I don't mind going thru my stuff, but I hate getting rid of my stuff.  So I keep it, store it--but sooner or later something has to be done with it, or....

#1 it will get filthy from barn dirt,
#2 it will get broken or torn, or messed up from people digging around looking for other STUFF
#3 it will get wet
#5 it will get ruined by mice, dogs or cats.
#6 if nothing else, it's likely to get thrown away if my husband or kids get too tired of having it in their way.
#7 And help us all if my daughter comes home at Christmas time and decides SHE needs to help me go thru it!

I worked lately on my scrapbooking nook & supplies and got them the space under control, but didn't get around to taking a picture of it.  Now I've messed it up a bit because....  (there's always SOME excuse ya know)

Anyway I've been sewing again lately!  I use to sew.  Loved it and made lots of clothes and other things over the years.  For many years I had a quilting machine and did custom quilting.  I've made a lot of friendship quilts for friends, but for the last 10 years there's been very little sewing.  Now the bug has hit again, and I had no space to work except my dining room, and that's a bit inconvenient a lot of the time.

After racking my brain on where I could make myself a sewing spot.  After crossing off the barn (too cold, dirty & unfinished) and the basement ,(too damp and dark) I came up with basically 2 choices.  My downstairs bathroom, or my upstairs bathroom.

Now I know that probably sounds really strange, but
#1. I'm desperate here.
#2.  I have 2 really big bathrooms
#3.  I believe in utilizing space
#4.  If you don't have something and you want something, figure it out, and make it work!

(I'm really in to #4.  I grew up this way--blame it on my mother. Or being poor.  Or something.)

I didn't take before photos, not much was changed except a dresser where the sewing machine now is.
And, I still have a couple boxes on the shelf of non-sewing STUFF that has to be gone thru.  But, I have my space and I'm quite happy.

We didn't do anything to this room when we moved in except put the two white cabinets on the wall for storage. The colors matched my bathroom decor anyway, so we left it the way it was for now.

 The sewing room from the doorway

 Sewing room from the bathroom

 The bathroom/tub

 The bathroom sink/stool

Looking out the door to the hallway.

There you go.  Mission accomplished.
Oh, you wondered why I didn't put it in my downstairs bathroom?
My Laundry room is in there.  :)

Thanksgiving day

I love Fall.  I love the colors, the feel of the season & the beautiful autumn decor that abounds.  It's why I started decorating my house for the seasons because I started collecting all those "feel-good" colors of oranges, yellows, reds & browns.  It warms me & gives me a comfort feeling.

Thanksgiving has always been our familys special holiday to get together on.  This holiday goes right along with the warm fuzzy feel-good feelings! Family, friends, food & fun along with all those great colors even if the weather has already turned cold and looks like winter.

  A first holiday in a "new" house is always special too.  Special gatherings, holidays, company for meals seem to cement the "making the house a home" feeling.

Because all my side of the family had other plans this year and my married girls were with their husband's familys, we invited a few others to be with us and our two older boys.  It worked out for some of Leon's family to be with us this year too. 

 There was alot of this going on--

 The waiting Living room was full of people.

 The baby was happy (and cute!)

Our company was delightful (Too bad I didn't get Duane in this one too!)

 The food was plentiful!

 The baby  was kissable.  (Did I mention  so cute?!)

 We had 6 kids between the ages of 3 and 6!

 The tables were full

 And desserts were waiting.

 I do believe this is the first time in over 30 years we've shared Thanksgiving with you Lori!  The only other time I remember is the year before Leon and I were married.  So glad your family got to come--and join us!

On the other hand, as many great pictures as my kids get just PLAYING with my camera--WHY when I deliberately give them the camera and permission to take lots of pictures do I generally only get goofy-unfocused ones?