Wednesday Hodgepodge

It's time for Wednesday Hodgepodge with Joyce, who blogs at From This Side of The Pond.  Each week she'll pose some questions for us to answer. What a great way to journal life.

1. Have you ever been on a cruise? Only once and it was one of those "hey, come sit and listen to our shpeel and you'll get Disney tickets plus a couple day cruise on dinky ship"  If so where did you go and how did you like it? With that said, it did make our first trip to Disney World possible because it was inexpensive. The cruise went to the Bahamas. We had to drive to Ft. Lauderdale from where we were in Orlando and I think it was like 2 nights on the boat. It was really small so we did not really enjoy it. The time in the Bahamas was kind of fun though. We only spent one day in the Bahamas so we couldn't do a whole lot.  If not, do you have any desire to take a cruise someday? I would love to do a river boat cruise in Europe, or an Alaskan cruise.

2. Tell us about your Thanksgiving plans...are you hosting? My mother in law always hosts, which is fine. cooking? I will be making a from scratch green bean casserole and some type of dairy free dessert. I have a few I'm going between making. eating out? I don't think we've ever eaten out on a holiday. turkey or some other main? Turkey all the way. is it stuffing or dressing in your house? We call it stuffing. homemade cranberries or cranberries in a can? I do not like cranberry sauce, though I have made white chocolate covered cranberries and they're yummy.  are pies on the dessert menu? There will probably be some kind of pie. what kind? I'm sure my MIL will have pumpkin and maybe apple. what are your 'must have' sides? Mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, my MIL makes a Swiss side called Kneupfle (sp)/Spaetzle, it's kind of like a dumpling Tell us one thing you're especially grateful for this year. I'm grateful for the people around me and where we are in life. 

3. If someone approaches you and asks for money do you give it to them? Not that often...perhaps I've become a bit calloused living near to areas where there is so much homelessness and people just don't seem to want to do anything different. However with that said...I look for ways to help someone...at times it's been to cover some of the cost of the person ahead of me in line at the store, etc. Do you drop money 'in a tin cup' that belongs to a person on the street? I don't see that quite that often..we have frequently put money into containers for street performers. Do you have a specific charity you support during the holiday season and/or year round? We don't. We tend to just be aware of people who might need a bit of help here and there. For example, a single mom at my husbands work has been having some health issues. We paid for her to go see a naturapath. Or maybe it's letting friends who are a bit down on their luck, crash at our house for a time. 

4. Have you started decorating for Christmas? Yes, somewhat. Is your tree up? Our tree is up. This is the first year we got an artifical tree from Costco and we took it out of the box to make sure we liked it, figured out where it would go, and just left it up. I will admit, I do like how it looks. I'll decorate this week. I decided that maybe a new tradition will be to decorate the tree the night of Thanksgiving. Shopping done? Oh, don't even mention it...I haven't even started. Wrapped? 

5. Create your own acrostic using the word THANKS. 

Thinking of those not with us this holiday season and thankful for times we had.

Hope that someday broken relationships would be restored.

Always excited to be with the ones I love and for a day off from work.

Never take for granted all that we've been given and never stop learning and growing.

Kindness during the holiday seasons is so so important.

Share a smile, a kind word, a hug, something to lift someones day. 

6.  Insert your own random thought here. 

I'm actually finishing this on Tuesday. Wow. I'm ahead of the game. I don't have a lot I'm bringing to Thanksgiving, but I do need to go to the store for some green beans. When I went on Sunday, they were out. I'll probably go this morning before work. Now it's actually Wednesday...haha. I did make it to the store and got beans. Tonight when I get home from babysitting I plan to make the desserts for tomorrow and prep things for the green beans, then it'll be easier to finish off tomorrow. 

I don't do Black Friday anymore, and I work, so I may just look online. I sometimes check Cyber Monday sales. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for finding this group of amazing ladies. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin