Happy Thanksgiving

Can you spot the girls in this picture?
(The Royce kids, circa 1979)

I will never forget the anticipation of Thanksgiving as a child. For us, it was almost as exciting as Christmas.

We lived much too far from most of our relatives on both sides of the family, but Aunt Jan lived close enough that we would occasionally make the long journey to her house. The six of us would pile into our little Volkswagen Bug with an ice chest full of sandwiches at mom's feet and off we'd go.

My favorite part was always being able to sit, knee-to-knee, with my younger brother in what we called the 'very back' seat. We felt bad for our older siblings who had to share the roomier seat in front of us. Funny thing is, they never seemed to complain.

We would pass the time trying to be the first to spot a certain letter of the alphabet or license plate, guessing how many miles we had remaining before reaching our destination and doing our best to annoy our older siblings in as innocent a fashion as possible. Our arms would be sore from playing Slug-Bug and our throats would be raw from the stifled laughter produced by inside jokes. We'd sing the songs learned from Sesame Street and The Electric Company as well as theme songs and commercial jingles.

For me, getting there was half the fun.

Once we arrived at Aunt Jan's place we'd stretch our cramped legs, run around like wild Indians for a bit and then immediately look for Aunt Jan's dog, Toby. I always got some secret delight from the fact that this little poodle shared a name with my oldest brother. Poor Toby (the dog, not the brother) would usually be cowering in the corner beneath the couch, not looking forward to our visit. Aunt Jan would have him all dressed up in a striped sweater and finally he'd come crawling out, resigning himself to his fate over the next few days.

I don't recall any specific dishes that were prepared but I do remember that mom and Aunt Jan would spend hours in the kitchen preparing our feast while we played outside in her yard. When we were called in to eat the aroma of turkey and stuffing blended with potatoes and hot rolls was intoxicating. I also remember there being such an exorbitant amount of food covering the table that I'd wonder whether we would be able to actually sit around it.

Well, times have certainly changed, but most things remain the same. We now occasionally cram our family of 11 into our suburban with an ice chest full of snacks to enjoy on long trips. Our kids sit in the back and sing songs, play traveling games and try to annoy their siblings in a way that allows them to feign innocence. When we reach our destination we all pile out and enjoy the freedom from the car's confinement. There is still too much food and plenty of visiting... but no Toby in his striped sweater (the dog, not the brother).

Memories, road trips, family, good times, food, laughter...

There is much to be thankful for - and not only at Thanksgiving.

Under Where?

Saturday was Underwear Day! That long-awaited, much anticipated random day of the year when we wake to find packages of children's underwear festooning our kitchen table.

What, you don't celebrate Underwear Day?

No Underwear Fairy comes to your home unannounced and leaves packages of underwear as a morning surprise?

You don't celebrate the day's arrival by eating maple frosted 'long johns'?

photo from hunch.com

Wow.

I'm kind of sad for you.

Brain Food

Photo from flickr.com

I realized recently that many of the times in my life which I recall with much fondness I also associate with food. Without a doubt, the food I first fell in love with was my mom's pan-popped popcorn.

That heavenly, buttery smell of pan-popped corn brings a wealth of wonderful memories washing over me. Popcorn brings back fond recollections of rainy days. Back in Iowa a good rainstorm could outlast our ability to sit still in the house long enough for it to subside. Mom remedied this with popcorn. She would send us out to our front porch with the largest bowl she could find, filled to the brim with warm, salty popcorn. We would sit there on the porch for hours playing games of make-believe and loving every aspect of the rain, letting it fill our senses as we rationed the popcorn for as long as possible. Often we would take the bowl into our old, rundown garage, filled with forgotten boxes and a musty old couch. There we'd sit and munch and formulate plans of how to get Miss Mary Ann to see us through her Magic Mirror on Romper Room as well as choreographing our own song and dance numbers so that eventually we could become real Mouseketeers.

Popcorn was the only thing I enjoyed about the annual showing of Deafula at the local Deaf Club each October, a horror movie done completely in American Sign Language. My parents brought all of us kids along each year, regardless of the fact that Deafula spooked me to the core. I would sit completely beneath a blanket to escape the scenes on the large screen set up for this event, eating my fill of popcorn while occasionally peeking out as the drama unfolded.

After we moved to California, popcorn was a staple in every apartment we called home. It reminds me of evenings spent in front of the television, the whole family enjoying episodes of everything from The A-Team & MacGyver to The Wonder Years & Highway to Heaven while enjoying bowls full of popcorn. If we were lucky, they were accompanied by plastic Tupperware cups filled with red Kool-aid. As we kids grew older, popcorn was a treat we shared with our friends as we would all gather around the television, watching music videos on MTV with my parents' Closed Captioning box turned on so we could learn the words to all of our favorite songs.

When I left home to be on my own I was not well educated in culinary matters - but I knew how to make popcorn. While my roommates taught me about lipstick and Levis and lunch from La Dolce Vita, I taught them to appreciate the flavorful pan-popped corn rather than the air-popped variety they were accustomed to. And whenever I had a twinge of homesickness I would remedy it by calling my brother, Chip. We would laugh and cry together through the phone as I munched on a bowl of popcorn, speaking of the directions our lives were taking us and the time we would see each other again.

Now that I have a family of my own the popcorn tradition continues. The air-poppers we received as wedding gifts (and I seem to recall a few) slowly made their way to other, more useful places as I refined my family's taste buds with the buttery, pan-popped goodness I have grown up with and perfected. Popcorn still finds itself in the heart of family time as we gather around the table to play games and talk about things we have learned.

So, although I often declare other foods as favorites, I think that popcorn will always be my own personal Pensieve.

A Happy Birthday and a Happy-Me-Day

I needed to start this new year out on the right foot. I have been a little grumpy lately and I don't like myself much that way. (I'm fairly certain my family doesn't enjoy it either.)

So because today is Princess' 6th birthday and because it has become a kid-created tradition to serve the birthday person breakfast in bed, I decided to go all out and make Dutch Babies (better known as German Pancakes) with fresh whipped cream and marion berries. With freshly whipped cream on hand I couldn't resist making a nice mug of hot chocolate for her, too.

The result? A happy Princess.
I have found that doing something nice for someone else usually helps pull me out of the pool of self-pity that I've been wallowing in. I don't usually want to do it - that's the difficult part. Sometimes I like having a pity party. But the good news is that I have never regretted it once the good deed is done.

And look at that sweet face... how could I still be grouchy with that around?

The Scariest Night of the Year!

No, I'm not talking about tonight. Although the results of today's election could be scary, indeed! But I'm not here to talk politics. I'm here to give you a full tour of our haunted house this year.

All of these amazing pictures were taken by the talented Jason of Backroads Photography. Thanks, Jason! To put it simply, you are awesome.

First, the view of the front yard. You better click on that one to really see all the details. Go ahead, click!
Here's a close-up in the cemetery. Spoooooky!
This was my witches' table just inside the front door where I greeted the trick-or-treaters.
Here's one of our new additions - a sign declaring the name of our Halloween abode. (Yes, Allen creates these in his head and builds them in our garage. He's got skills.)
Another new addition this year: the corn field.
The cemetery from another angle...Another shot of the house... I couldn't decide which one I liked best. (Just humor me. Thanks.)We had over 500 trick-or-treaters. It was crazy fun and the weather was perfect. The majority of the decorations came down last night, so Halloween season is officially over. (By the way, radio people, we still have Thanksgiving coming. Can you stop playing CHRISTMAS music already?!)