Turkey Schmurkey

    Thanksgiving Day is in less than two days and I don't have an oven or a cooktop.  Well, I do, but it's in the garage still in the box.  It's okay because I have a micro convection hood thing, a grill and a tiny toaster oven as well as various other small, useful kitchen appliances that I will be using to make our little Thanksgiving dinner.  Luckily, none of us really care for a giant turkey, just the legs and thighs.  The grill will really be doing most of the work.  Did I mention it's supposed to rain that day?  I hope we remember to document the day with pictures.  Thanksgiving will be a Big Day.  We will wake up, eat breakfast and do the Turkey Trot 5K and kids' Fun Run in celebration of being alive in the rain.  Then it's back to the house where I will attempt to keep my patience with my family while I make dinner all over the kitchen and outside on the grill.  Then we'll take a short walk to my good friend Christie's house to have dessert with her and her family.  
    You know, I've been wanting a new oven range anyway.  Now it's so close.  I can go out to the garage and look at it longingly any time I please.  Funny thing about Thanksgiving, you can be thankful for all sorts of things.  For instance, I can thank the twins for breaking the oven.  Cora had already broken it in and the twins finished it off.  It was so old, everything on it was discontinued and out of stock.  We tried refurbishing the broken part only to find out that the part it was connected to was also broken.  When Killer and my friend's husband removed the old oven and cooktop, we found the electric oven was hardwired into the wall which required a couple of half hearted phone calls to electricians and a run to the hardware store.  One neighbor let us borrow some tools and our other neighbor hooked up the outlet for us.  I'm so thankful, I'll make them whatever they want from my new oven range, as soon as it makes it out of the garage.
     Last week, I decided that as a family we would help a person or a group in need every week until the end of the year.  I love to help.  If I'm in a bad mood or not feeling so great, it instantly makes me feel better to focus on someone else's needs instead of my own, especially if they have a better day because of it.  Killer can tell you I'm a bit hard to live with at times because of this.  I believe we still have a picture somewhere of a duck that had taken refuge in our front yard because it had been grazed by a car.  Because we lived on the corner of a busy commute road and it was a Sunday and everything was closed,  I convinced my neighbor to help me catch it.  I set it up in the backyard in a kiddy pool until we could take it to the wild bird rescue.  Then there was Hank, the 6 month old pit bull puppy that I fostered.  A schoolmate found him tied to a telephone pole on a street with no houses or businesses and no people around.  He was so dehydrated, he'd been there for a couple of days.  The schoolmate of mine lived on campus and we didn't want to take him to the SPCA in Oakland.  So, I informed Killer we were fostering Hank.  Then there are all the great people that let me help them.  I won't get into that, but there are some great stories there that could fill a book.
     This year I wanted my family to be more involved.   It can be hard when your children are very small to want to include them in giving back, but it's not impossible.  It's interesting too, now that my brain is tuned in, how often opportunities present themselves in interesting and not so subtle ways, opportunities far outside of individual voices and signs, shelters' wish lists, Goodwill or the Salvation Army.  Not to say that those aren't fine opportunities to give back, because they are.  But, there are several families in the area that have lost everything except the shirts on their backs in fires last week.   I talked with Cora about it and she and the twins are helping me make packages for the kids of families that lost everything to the fires.  We'll also be participating in Project Night Night, Family Giving Tree, and Child's Play to name a few great organizations.  Truly, we have more than enough.  We have enough to share and we are ever thankful.  Eucharisteo my friends.