Too Many Blessings to Count (Ten Things of Thankful)

Ah, Thanksgiving Weekend, an extra special time to count blessings.  There are so many, i'm not sure where to begin.

We have family, and it's family that loves to get together and have a great time.  No political fights, respect for each other's religious beliefs, tolerance of each other's quirks and oddities.  Lots of love, too, to smooth out any rough places.  That's the most important part.

Bigger Girl and Little Girl both helped me make the hojaldras (sweet fried dough, a family favorite for generations) for Grandpa's birthday, and i am so glad they helped.  It's really a lot of work for one person.

Speaking of work, Sweetie and i had plenty of work leading up to the holiday, and yet we were still able to carve out enough time to clean Grandma and Grandpa's house.  We are thankful we had it in us to get the work done, too.

Little Girl came down to Grandma and Grandpa's house early and we all got to do the cooking together.  There's nothing like learning Grandma's recipes first hand by watching her do things, and doing things under her direction.

And along with the topic of cooking, i am grateful for the food.  So much food.  Enough that everyone gets leftovers who wants them, and we usually end up with enough that i don't have to cook for a couple of days!

Grandma and Grandpa have two navel orange trees in the yard, and we pick oranges at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We are so thankful for the fresh citrus, and this year #2  Son found another baby orange tree growing by the fence!  It seems an orange that fell off the tree and rolled away sprouted, and Uncle J's horticulturist friend will come dig it up and transplant it at Uncle J's house.

We are all thankful for doggie love from Lulu, Grandma and Grandpa's dog, and Uncle J's dogs Jay and Abby.  They are thankful for play time together.

Three Amigos, begging to come in for more snacks.

Every one of us is grateful for safe travel this whole past week, as the highways get so dangerous when there's always somebody who wants to go just a bit faster and is willing to endanger others to do so. 

Ms. J, whose house was originally scheduled for yesterday, rescheduled for early Monday.  That meant i actually had a morning off, and i was so grateful.  After Bible study, i came back to the house, dove under the covers with my warming pad, and took a 3 hour nap, something i never have the time to do.

The only work i had yesterday was the cat shelter, and we did the fastest, easiest shift i ever remember doing there.  It was closed for the holiday, but that doesn't mean the cats don't need tending, so i gave fresh water (they all had plenty of food) and Sweetie cleaned the bathrooms and i think we were there for less than an hour, which never happens.

Red-Headed Alec and Sweet Sue came by to let Baby Lee visit.  To say i am smitten is putting it mildly, he is a precious baby.

Yes, i am in love.

Today is another day with no work, no set schedule, plenty of relaxation.  It feels so good after all the activity.  There's nothing like working six days a week and volunteering at church on Sunday to make you appreciate a rare day off.

Ms. Josie Two-Shoes hosts Ten Things of Thankful, where you can share your gratitude list and get the warm fuzzies reading everyone else's lists, too.  If you have a list to share, it doesn't have to be ten, post them and link up.  It really does feel good to do so.

Today is:

Anniversary of Moquegua City -- Peru (founded this date in 1541)

Banquet for Monkeys / Monkey Buffet Festival -- Khmer Ruins of Lop Buri, Thailand (about 3,000 monkeys are served lunch while humans get to watch in what some describe as a riot but without the police; through tomorrow) 

Cat-Napping Convention -- Fairy Calendar

ClauWau: Santa Claus World Championship -- Samnaun, Switzerland (Santa Claus aspirants compete in in such things as the chimney climb with toys, a geography bee, and the sledge race with timed gift giving to be crowned the world champion Santa)

Day Sacred to Proserpina -- Ancient Roman Calendar (also Persephone, of the Greeks, the Wheel goddess of the Underworld, often associated with St. Catherine; see below)

Evacuation Day -- 19th Century New York City (withdrawal of British troops in 1783)

Guadalajara International Book Fair -- Guadalajara, Mexico (through Dec. 3)

Hari Guru -- Indonesia (Teacher's Day)

Holodomor Remembrance Day -- international commemoration of the Death By Hunger Genocide in Ukraine

International Aura Awareness Day -- to increase the awareness of the human energy body, or aura  

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women -- UN

    White Ribbon Day -- International (if you know a victim of violence, help break their silence! because domestic violence affects all of society)

International Hat Day  

Lantern Light Tours begin -- Mystic Seaport, CT, US (walking tour of performances showing Christmas past, on various dates through the month)

Light of the World Christmas Pageant -- Minden, DE, US (pageant and lighting up the downtown square; also tomorrow and next Sunday)

Mangé Yam -- Haiti (fete de la moisson; a yam harvest festival)

Mungabareena Ngan-Girra Festival -- Albury area, NSW, Australia (formerly called the Bogong Moth Festival, now an indigenous cultural showcase)

National Day -- Bosnia and Herzegovina (commemorates the 1943 declaration of statehood within Yugoslavia)

National Don't Utter A Word Day -- internet generated, and variously listed as the 25th of November, February, or May; pick one if you want

National Parfait Day

Persephone Day (a/k/a Kore) -- Ancient Greek Calendar (celebration of her as wheel goddess of the underworld; date approximate, but she is often associated with St. Catherine; see below)

Saint Catherine of Alexandria's Day -- of the Catherine Wheel, sometimes associated with the Wheel of Karma and the Hindu Kali; one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers (Patron of apologists, archivists, attorneys, barristers, craftsmen who work with wheels of any sort, dying people, educators, girls, jurists, knife grinders and sharpeners, lawyers, librarians, libraries, maidens, mechanics, millers, nurses, old maids, philosophers, potters, preachers, scholars, schoolchildren, scribes, secretaries, spinners, spinsters, stenographers, students, tanners, teachers, theologians, turners, University of Paris, unmarried girls, and wheelwrights; Aalsum, Netherlands; Bertinoro, Italy; Camerata Picena, Italy; Dumaguete, Philippines; Heidesheim am Rhein, Germany; Kuldiga, Latvia; Mähring, Germany; Saint Catharines, Ontario; Zejtun, Malta; Zurrieq, Malta) related observance

    Women's Merrymaking Day -- Women go 'Cath'rining' and have a good time (in some places, especially France, women may propose marriage on this day)

Shopping Reminder Day -- exactly a month until Christmas

Small Business Saturday -- encouraging everyone to patronize local businesses for your holiday shopping

Srefidensi -- Suriname (Republic Day/Independence Day)

Statehood Day -- FBiH, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Swine Time Festival --  Climax, Georgia, US (Come on out and join the fun, the first Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Contests & Events include best dressed pig, corn shucking, hog calling, eating chitterlings, pig racing, syrup making, baby crawling and the greased pig chase!)

Territorial Christmas Celebrations -- Guthrie, OK, US (old time fun this weekend and through Dec. 16)

Vajiravudh Day -- Thailand

Birthdays Today:

Barbara and Jenna Bush, 1981

Jerry Ferrara, 1979

Donovan McNabb, 1976

Eddie Steeples, 1973

Christina Applegate, 1971

Jill Hennessy, 1968

Cris Carter, 1965

Amy Grant, 1960

John F. Kennedy, Jr., 1960

Bucky Dent, 1951

John Larroquette, 1947

Ben Stein, 1944

Joe Jackson Gibbs, 1940

Lenny Moore, 1933

Paul Desmond, 1924

Ricardo Montalban, 1920

Joe DiMaggio, 1914

Solanus Casey, 1870

Carry Nation, 1846

Karl F. Benz, 1844

Andrew Carnegie, 1835

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Iolanthe: or, The Peer and the Peri"(Comic opera), 1882

Today in History:

A tsunami, caused by the earthquake in the Tyrrhenian Sea, devastates Naples (Italy) and the Maritime Republic of Amalfi, among other places, 1343

The siege of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, begins, 1491

A deadly earthquake rocks Shemakha, in the Caucasus, killing 80,000 people, 1667

The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, reaches its peak intensity which it maintains through November 27. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people died, 1703

First English patent granted to an American, for processing corn, 1715

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is founded, 1758

Farmer's Almanac first published, 1792

The Greek frigate Hellas arrives in Nafplion to become the first flagship of the Hellenic Navy, 1826

A cyclone slams India with high winds and a 40 foot storm surge, destroying the port city of Coringa (never to be entirely rebuilt again); the storm wave sweeps inland, taking with it 20,000 ships and thousands of people. An estimated 300,000 deaths result from the disaster, 1839

Alfred Nobel patents dynamite, 1867

John B Meyenberg of St Louis patents evaporated milk, 1884

American College of Surgeons incorporates in Springield, Illinois, 1912

First Thanksgiving Day Parade is held in Philadelphia, 1920

690 earthquake shocks recorded in 1 day in Ito, Japan, 1930

The first Soviet liquid fuel rocket attains altitude of 261' (80m), 1933

Woody Woodpecker debuts with release of Walter Lantz's "Knock Knock", 1940

New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom, 1947

Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London later becoming the longest continuously-running play in history, 1952

The Minneapolis Thanksgiving Day Fire destroys an entire city block, 1982

The United Nations establishes the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women to commemorate the murder of three Mirabal Sisters for resistance against the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship in Dominican Republic, 1999

A powerful storm brings 3 years worth of rain in 4 hours to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, sparking terrible floods, 2009