cbtreks

gillo, in a reply to a comment I made earlier, said she's never tasted or even seen green bean casserole or sweet potato casserole with marshmallows. Lucky her! But just in case anyone who isn't familiar with them is curious about them, take a look (er, follow the links):

Green Bean Casserole:

https://www.campbells.com/recipes/green-bean-casserole/

I find everything about it - the look of it once you dish it out, the smell, the taste, the texture - absolutely revolting (hence the title to this post!). Of course some people, such as my youngest sister, love it. I really think this is one of those dishes that people love or hate, no take-it-or-leave it here.

Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows:

https://thestayathomechef.com/marshmallow-sweet-potato-casserole/

I love roasted marshmallows (I pretty much like marshmallows any way you serve them including straight out of the bag) but really dislike this casserole. I'll pick a few marshmallows off the top when no one's looking. Ironically, the reason I don't like the casserole is because I find sweet potatoes too sweet. Sweet potatoes, yams, squash, cooked carrots - pretty much all those orange vegetables I find way too sweet and do not like them at all. (Except in pie - both pumpkin and sweet potato pie are delicious.) I certainly like sweet things so I don't know what it is about those vegetables but they almost make me gag. Weird.

I haven't disappeared from the face of the earth! My Internet has been down for the past week (it's this computer - sometimes it'll start pulling a 169.... IP address and I can't get it to pull a good one for anything - very annoying - and then it just fixes itself a week or so later). Hope all of y'all who celebrate Christmas had a Merry one. Hopefully the computer will maintain a connection for awhile so I can catch up on your posts tomorrow.

Well, one quarter of the US is in 2010 now (70 miles away, it's still 2009). Happy New Year everyone! And happy new decade - I hope this one brings good things to us all.

However you celebrate today, I hope it's merry and bright (if not white!) and blessed. If you don't celebrate, have a great Friday - the weekend's coming!

one to go. Since my youngest sister always has to work on Thanksgiving, we have a smaller gathering (immediate family and assorted friends) the Saturday after. We spent the late afternoon and evening at my middle sister's house with another dinner - turkey again, mashed potatoes, corn casserole.... The turkey, I must admit, was not quite as good as what we had Thursday, but it didn't matter. It was just fun being there, enjoying being together, laughing a lot. My nephew was there till later in the evening, when he went out with a girl. (Whether it's a friend-thing or a date, I have no idea!) and my youngest niece joined us after her shift at McDonald's. (My oldest niece didn't come home from Georgia for the holiday; I hope she's here at Christmas.) Very laid back and fun, and there were assorted dogs and cats as well - always a good thing! (And not one lime jello salad in sight.)

Tomorrow, leftovers at another friend's house - it should also be a laid back day. I'm not looking forward to going back to work Monday at all!

Dinner was yummy - turkey and ham, potatoes and gravy, all kinds of side dishes, including corn casserole and really good corn from Aunt Beth's farm that she'd frozen. And butterhorn rolls - the highlight of the meal, this year with real butter rather than margarine. Also lots of desserts, but those aren't my main interests. (I had a piece of pumpkin pie though because [a] tradition and [b] mmmmmmm.) Another aunt (by marriage) brought the same "pink stuff" that she brought to the first family gathering she came to as a new bride 34 years ago. I think the family might mutiny if she didn't. (It's some kind of strawberry jello/whipped cream concoction that's like a strawberry mousse.) Yet another aunt brought her cole slaw that I really, really like (generally my opinion about cole slaw runs the gamut from "meh" to "eww" but I've had a few varieties that I really enjoyed and hers is one). I bought a cheese ball and crackers at Kroger yesterday, but there was so much other good (and homemade) stuff that it was barely touched. I was going to take a photo of it and I forgot. I wish I'd remembered because it was cute - 3 swiss cheese balls put together like a snowman, with pretzel arms, an orange jelly bean nose, and raisin eyes and smile. I stabbed him through the heart with the knife when I put him out, but someone removed it and laid it on the plate. No sense of humor. *sigh*

One of my many cousins' youngest babies (almost 11 months old) was there with her grandparents (my youngest aunt and her husband) and this little girl just fell in love with Irish. It was so funny! She's never met him before but when she saw him, she reached her arms out to him. Another aunt thought little Miley (yes, really) mistook Irish for her grampa, but I don't think so, 'cause even when her own grandpa was holding her, she saw Irish again and began to grin and reached out for him. Irish says Miley just knows a papaw when she sees one.

My youngest sister works second shift at a group home for the developmentally disabled - no holidays off unless it's a regular day off on her schedule - so she wasn't there. We'll have another dinner Saturday at my middle sister's house with just the immediate family so she can join us. She doesn't mind working holidays too much; she likes her clients and its double pay, so not a hardship. I always miss her at the big family things, though. My middle sister's boyfriend and his two teenage sons came along. I like them and the family hasn't scared them off, so a big plus! Also, my nephew was here from school and my youngest niece came and was very pleasant. (J will be 18 next month and is emerging from a few years of nasty attitude and starting to be pleasant again. Yay!)

(For the record, this is my mom's family. My dad was the youngest of seven siblings and was a year older than my mom, who is the oldest of seven. My oldest uncle is a year older than my maternal grandmother, and my youngest aunt is just six years older than I am. My oldest first cousin is 60 and my youngest is, I think, 25. Of the 14 in my parents' generation, only one did not get married and have children. I have a lot of cousins!)

One thing we didn't do, which we used to - and perhaps it's because there are so many people at Thanksgiving dinner, I don't know - is to go around the room and say what we're thankful for this year. I'm thankful that I'm rich in so many ways - I have a good husband, a good family, a roof over my head, more than enough clothes, have never gone hungry, and even though I - like so many others - pinch pennies and fret about money, in fact I'm wealthy compared to so many people. And I have friends here on lj that really enrich my life (and I hope I do yours, as well.) Even if I never had material goods I would still be blessed, just as I am now, with a wonderful family and the grace and love God gives me every day. No matter what I do, He never withdraws that love and grace from me. (End of the sermon! Hope that wasn't too Pollyanna-ish.)

What are you thankful for today? Happy Thanksgiving, all! (And happy fourth Friday in November, as jaded_jamie would say to those for whom today isn't a holiday.)

April 12 was Easter, so more George Herbert seems appropriate. (And I'm caught up! I've technically posted a poem for every day in April so far, even though I had to do double posts for awhile to get it done.)

***

Easter Song

I Got me flowers to straw Thy way,
I got me boughs off many a tree;
But Thou wast up by break of day,
And brought’st Thy sweets along with Thee.

The sunne arising in the East,
Though he give light, and th’ East perfume,
If they should offer to contest
With Thy arising, they presume.

Can there be any day but this,
Though many sunnes to shine endeavour?
We count three hundred, but we misse:
There is but one, and that one ever.

(by George Herbert)

April 10 was Good Friday this year. Here's a poem I found while looking for Good Friday poems. I was familiar with "In the Bleak Midwinter" but not with this one.

***

Good Friday

Am I a stone and not a sheep
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood's slow loss,
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon—
I, only I.

Yet give not o'er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.

(by Christina Rossetti)

I have a cold. I feel miserable. But it's March 1 (happy St. David's Day! Cymru am byth! I've just exhausted my Welsh) and only 20 days left till Spring. At least, that's what the calendar says!

I'm not entirely sure "Wales forever!" is appropriate for St. David's Day (though that is a Welsh holiday) but it's the only Welsh I know.

Sleep study on Friday. I hope I can actually sleep - I don't do well in strange beds.

That's all for now - I just wanted to post before the day's over.