Mindless Monday

Good Monday morning!

The Showcase Pic is of Roxie in front of the mums taken a couple of weeks ago. I'm sorry it's an old shot. I've explained the situation below.

The Gallery Pics (which should number in the thousands since it is Mindless Monday... few words, but tons of pictures) are of our newest Mexican restaurant's outdoor decor. I found the life-size men and donkeys very interesting (and a little frightening) for some reason.

Do you know what happens when you have a weekend with NO specific plans, parties or events? Do you?

Well, there is nothing (and I mean NOTHING) to photograph. Not one thing. NADA! (Well, except for my giant Santa Penguin, but I already featured that on Belinda's Project Life.)

Luckily, it is Thanksgiving week, so I am expecting a truckload of photos each and every day between now and Friday. The Gallery will soon be FULL of fascinating photos of our family life... and I hope the Mexican restaurant's outdoor decor will soon be a fading memory.

I AM doing a Top Ten List today through Wednesday, so maybe that will help with your massive "lack of pictures in the Gallery" disappointment.

Top Ten Thanksgiving Memories

1. One year, I made twice-baked sweet potatoes. It took over two hours of preparation time (I'm not kidding), and when I served them, they tasted exactly like Sweet Potato Casserole made with canned yams and marshmallow topping. Exactly! (It's 132 minutes I'll never get back.)

2. Growing up, my family always ate Thanksgiving with my MamMa (my Dad's mom). She made her dressing with sage. Every year, the dressing became more of a dark green color as my MamMa added more and more sage. To this day, I LOVE sage and I really LOVE extra dry dressing you can cut into cake-size pieces.

3. Our first married Thanksgiving was our first official holiday in Cullman. It was also the first of five years of "traveling" holidays. At that time in our lives, we were going to three different places each holiday, eating two huge meals and finishing the day driving into our driveway around midnight. Over the years, we've moved closer to our parents' homes and tweaked the Thanksgiving schedule to enjoy more relaxed time with each side of the family. With age comes wisdom!

4. Honeybaked ham at my Mom's house. Nuff said.

5. Mikie's mom and sister always make MULTIPLE desserts. In my pre-diabetic days, it was sweet-tooth heaven.

6. One year Roxie made a turkey centerpiece from a pumpkin. The feathers were wooden skewers filled with cheese squares and grapes. It was the perfect centerpiece/appetizer.

7. In my mind, Thanksgiving is the deadline for taking the perfect Christmas card picture. Thus, there is always a little tension in the air if I haven't obtained the picture before this holiday. (It's okay, Mikie. Our Christmas card is almost ready to go. No pictures needed this Thursday. You can relax!)

8. There have been two times in 12 years we celebrated Thanksgiving in the mountains with my family. Both times were HUGE, wonderful memory makers, but the Friday after, I immediately began hyperventilating because it was time to get into Christmas mode. So much to do, and so little time!

9. Last year, we (Roxie, my sister, niece and cousins) started a new Thanksgiving tradition. We met at the Wynfrey around 6:00 p.m. Thanksgiving night, ate junk food, watched TV and went to bed. We woke up around 4:00 or 4:30 a.m. for Black Friday shopping at the Galleria. This will be our second year to make this memory. So much fun.

10. For many years when the kids were younger, Thanksgiving night was the time the Faulkner Five sat down to watch the first Christmas movie of the season.

Of course, these are not my only memories, but I tried to write down the first ones that came to mind... and as you can see, they didn't come in any specific order.

Have a wonderful Monday. I hope you get a lot done on your "Thanksgiving To Do" list. I hope I get a lot done on that list, too. Of course, on Tuesday I will have a great recipe for you to try. But you already knew that, didn't you?

Take care, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting Belinda