OFFBEAT BAHLMANN THANKSGIVING TRADITIONS

In the Bob Bahlmann family, Thanksgiving means the guys are in the kitchen cooking.

When the bounteous food is ready, they eat however they can - big guys, little chairs, whatever works!

Then it's time to settle the meal to make room for dessert, which means WRESTLING!

You know life will never be the same when a son can lift his dad!

More of his kids complete a take-down!

Even the little ones get in on the wrestling game.

The two-year-old is determined to take you down with her somersaults!

Some of the wrestling moves look more like hugs.

After dessert (no pictures here! Imagine your favorite one...then you'll want to go eat it! Heh-heh) the girls clean up the dishes and put the food away while the guys fold up tables and chairs.

If anyone happens to think there's something wrong with the women cleaning up after the guys fixed the food (but Jamie DID stir the gravy!) then think of the story of the woman who removed the doing-dishes-resentment by feeling intense gratitude for having food and the dishes to eat it on while she washed those very dishes.

Life can appear drastically different with a shift in perspective!

Have you ever had a shift in perspective? 

What happened?

Thanksgiving Decoration!

I've been looking for a few Thanksgiving decorations. Once upon a time, we had a five foot tall air-filled turkey on our lawn, but that flew the coop. 

Not only that, I wanted something a bit more specific to the "Thankful" part of the holiday, so when I spotted a piece of turkey-and-pumpkin fabric on sale, I took it home. (After I bought it, I mean.)

 With my magical marker, fabric paint, glue, and sparkles, I wrote the biggest letters I could make fit on the fabric to spell out a reminder to be grateful. When I take time to think of it, there are SO MANY THINGS to be thankful for every day! Just a very few things are air, water, food, shelter, clothes, people to love, transportation, a body that works, and thoughts to think.

What are you grateful for?

Thankful for Thanksgiving

My little sister is in the best holiday mood, reminding me that we should decorate for Thanksgiving.

Shirley Scrooge... (or is it Turkey Shirley?) didn't want to bother. More expense, more stuff to store, to lose, to look for in subsequent years (like the adorable little pilgrim dolls our sister Loraine sent Carolyn last year. (I KNOW we have them, and I know where I put them, but Carolyn rearranged and we haven't found them yet.) So Turkey Shirley encouraged Carolyn to wait for the time to put up Christmas decorations.

Over the course of four days, Carolyn gently insisted that she thought we ought to decorate for Thanksgiving.

Shirley finally relented.

BUT GUESS WHAT?

The stores we went to didn't HAVE any Thanksgiving decorations!

Yet Thanksgiving is such a gentle, refreshing holiday.

(I'm not talking about the arguments that the Native Americans were booted off their land and all of that stuff. I'm talking about the spirit of gratitude.)

So we got a plastic table cover and made our own decoration, because we have a lot to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Found Some Pirates at Walmart

No, Halloween isn't over yet! I found these pirates at WalMart!

But wait a minute...what if they aren't dressed for Halloween? Could they be from a Pilgrim ship? (Or chasing a Pilgrim ship? Maybe they're hungry for a shriveled apple!)
Or maybe they always dress this way. It could be their regular modus operandi!
It was fun to run into them, and I'm thankful they let me take a photo without brandishing a cutlass.
What are you thankful for? 

Thanks Daddy Dell and Momma Ru

My parents were so popular with our friends and neighborhood kids that my father, Dell Anderson, was given the nickname "Daddy Dell."

(Try singing this... 'The farmer Daddy Dell, the farmer Daddy Dell, Heigh ho the dairy-o, the farmer Daddy Dell.') See? It works!

(Isn't he handsome? He never lost his hair throughout his life, either! I think he looks like a celebrity.)

Daddy Dell

President Kennedy

So then the neighborhood kids came up with "Mama Ru" for my mother, Ruth Anderson. She was always setting extra places at the table for kids who would frequently drop by for meals, especially only child Ronnie Ballant, who seemed to be there every evening for dinner. Mom didn't even blink an eye, but fed whoever, whenever.

More than one person said she resembled the actress Myrna Loy. Go ahead, see for yourself! They could be sisters!

Mama Ru

Myrna Loy

So at this Thanksgiving time, I wish to say I'm thankful for my parents adding me to their big, happy family, because my brothers (2) and sisters (5...I make 6) are my ROCKS. They ROcK LiKE A PaRTy!

LOVE YOU!

Who's your rock?

Decorate Once and be Done!

Here's an idea... save time by just putting out decorations for all the holidays at once! 

These homeowners have it covered with a Santa "Welcome" sign, a patriotic wall hanging by the door, two pumpkins hanging from their porch just waiting to be baked into a Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, and a Halloween ghost crouched by the steps. When they answer the door, perhaps paper Valentine's hearts fall on your head while you're presented with a birthday cupcake and a candle to blow out!

(Make a wish!)

What's your favorite holiday?

My Magic Family

How did I get so lucky? Here I am on Saturday, November 3, 2012, with my first sister and my last sister. (No "oldest" here, we're all young! Just look at our smiles!) The coolest thing is, there's more magic than what you see here...fitted in and around us are three more magic sisters. But wait, there's more! We also have two brothers who are so magic, they never fought during their growing-up years. Really. When I realized I couldn't remember them fighting, I asked them if they duked it out when I wasn't around. They looked at each other, then turned to me and at the same time answered, "No." Maybe their behavior stems from two boys trying to survive in a family of six girls Oh, no, too much estrogen! But for whatever reason, they always got along remarkably well, in spite of four years and two sisters between them.

Coming up on Thanksgiving, (my new favorite holiday, as of last year), I declare that I am extremely thankful for my magical family. Even though we are all very different personalities, the magic is that our love for one another is as solid as ice, flows through our family as easily as water, and permeates our hearts as thoroughly as mist fills a room.

(Incidentally, I'm also thankful for popcorn and clean sheets and modern dentistry!) 

What are you thankful for?   

Surprising Thanksgiving Eating Contest and Cauliflower Ships

Are you tired of Thanksgiving stories? Well, this one is weird, so it's worth going back in time a couple of weeks. Most of you know that I have boys. And boys don't generally think much about their weight. So before Thanksgiving dinner, my guys weighed themselves. After dinner, they weight themselves again. The differences ranged from 4.4 pounds gained to .8 pounds lost.
SAY WHAT? LOST?
Yes, lost.
HOW DID HE DO THAT? He ate. I saw him. But this is the son with the killer metabolism, who got so tired of eating continually in high school that he began eating normally and started losing weight.
Hm. He and I ought to split our metabolism and do co-transplants.

On Thanksgiving, even our entertainment was food-themed. When the grandchildren got together to do a play about the Pilgrims coming to America, they found a couple of mattresses stacked in a bedroom. "Hey!" our 7-year-old granddaughter said with wide-eyed excitement. "Those can be the Cauliflower!"
"Um," her nearly 10-year-old brother said, "You mean the Mayflower."

What Color is His Bathroom? By the Way, What's Your Favorite Holiday?

I walked my son to school last week and happened upon a teacher struggling with two hands full of heavy plastic grocery bags. Knowing how those thin, tough handles love to cut into flesh, I offered to carry some for her so she could unlock her door. We ended up talking the WHOLE FIRST PERIOD of school about holidays, their meanings, and the way people perceive them. (Yep, I can talk to anyone.) I once got involved in a conversation with a stranger in the visitor's center at Flaming Gorge. When I finally got in the car with the impatiently waiting males of my family, my husband glibly asked, "What color was his bathroom?"
"Yellow," I replied.
It was true. We'd meandered into discussing his current remodeling job. (Come on, who couldn't open up to a face like this? Yes, it is mine, and after watching some old episodes of the medical drama "House," I'm grateful I have a face. Any face.)
Anyway, back to the teacher talk, the one who opened my eyes to the wondrous simplicity of Thanksgiving, where the focus is not on gifts nor baskets nor sugary sweets, but on giving thanks for simple abundance and on gathering together in groups to reflect on our blessings and enjoy our kinship and friendship. She pointed out how it appears to be squeezing out of popularity by the BIG COMMERCIAL holidays near it. She helped me realize the appeal of Thanksgiving to the point that it has now become MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY. (Next to Halloween and the ballerina costume my Grandmother made for me when I was about THAT age!)
Im also thankful to have launched my new pen name blog! Do you wanna see? Really? If you follow it, then you get to read TWO blogs from this infathomable mind of mine. (Which goes along with the gratitude-for-my-face sentiment. I'm glad I have any mind at all.) Can you take it? CAN YOU?
Be one of the first to click to visit SkyleeFair.blogspot.com!

EATING TIPS FOR THE HOLIDAYS

This isn't mine, it's a passalong, but I agree with it 100%! (I did a search for the author, but didn't find one. Whoever you are, AMEN!)

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can and quickly. You can't find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an "eggnog-aholic" or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it!!!! Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!

3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand-alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.

5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello???

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.

8. Same for pies. Apple, pumpkin and mincemeat - have a slice of each. Or, if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.

10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Reread tips: Start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.

Remember this motto to live by:

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body. But rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO-HOO what a ride!"

Penguin Turkey Tails

My youngest son, Michael, loves to decorate for the holidays. Halloween was all cobwebs in the trees and fright masks on our porch bear. Once Halloween was over, we went looking for thanksgiving decorations. Know what? They are sorely lacking, at least in our neck of the woods.
But that didn't stop us, no, sir. In our search we found some little penguin yard stakes, the kind that light up. We bought them, took them home, and set them up in our front yard. Michael got busy and taped long colored feathers to their black and white behinds. Ta-da! Their turkey disguise is complete. Once Thanksgiving is over, we'll pluck their tail feathers and voila! We'll be all ready for Christmas.
Gobble, gobble, Ho-Ho-Ho!