Thankful and Thanksgiving Day

For those who celebrate Thanksgiving Day, I hope you had a wonderful day with family, friends or volunteering.  This is the first time in a long time I did not cook Thanksgiving dinner, but this year I was not up to it.  I am feeling much better but seem to not have regained my energy and stamina yet.

I opted to make a reservation at my favorite restaurant and treated my cousin and my adorable 93-year old neighbor to dinner.  The food was delicious, and we all enjoyed it.  I did cook the next evening though for the three of us.  My neighbor's daughter-in-law had caught fresh wild salmon in Washington, and offered to provide it for dinner.   I marinated it in Sesame Ginger sauce, grilled it on a cedar plank, and it was delicious if I do say so myself.  We all ate too much on both evenings but enjoyed every morsel.

My son and his family live in Japan which is too far away to visit for the weekend.  My daughter normally is here for Thanksgiving weekend, but a new job  required her to stay in New York.  My cousin lives in a suburb of Los Angeles but joins us in the desert for the holidays each year.  She did a great job of putting the lights on my Christmas tree since that is something my daughter always has done for me and one more thing I am not yet up to doing for myself.  Slowly I will get the ornaments put on it, but the lights are a real chore so I am grateful to her for her assistance.

We did take time on Saturday to go to the movies where we saw  Lincoln,  and it deserves all the great reviews it is getting.  Daniel Day Lewis should win an Oscar for his superb portrayal of Lincoln.  Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones were also outstanding as were so many other actors and actresses whose names are too numerous to mention here.  If you have not seen the film, I hope you will have an opportunity to do so.  Even if you are not a history buff you will still enjoy the film I think.  I am not a history buff at all, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This year my family and I especially have so much for which to be thankful, and I try to be grateful each day and not just on Thanksgiving Day.   I know sometimes I fall short of that goal, and my vow is to try to do better in the months ahead.  There are so many people in this world who are in harsh situations, and by comparison I know I am blessed and more fortunate.  I hope I will continue to remember that daily and do whatever I can to help others.

What about you?  Are you fortunate or unfortunate?  Are you grateful or ungrateful?  I would very much like to hear from you as to what you are thankful for or as to what your misfortune may be.  Thanks for taking time to read today's post.

Did You Watch The Academy Awards?

When I was a little girl my sister and I were in love with movies. Our mother's only brother met his wife when both worked for famous columnist Hedda Hopper. They were very dear people and fed our appetite for all things Hollywood when they sent us still photos, autographed pictures, and signed Christmas cards from dozens of our favorite stars. Growing up we lived within walking distance of the only movie theater in our Chicago suburb, and the movies changed 3 times a week and always double features. The admission for us as children was ten cents each, and many weeks we were able to go to the theater each time the movies changed. Summers were the best because snow, ice, school work, and bedtimes did not interfere with our ability to see six films a week. A very special privilege was to be allowed to stay up late on a school night to watch the Oscars after we finally had a television set. Last evening was an evening to enjoy the current award ceremony as well as to reminisce about the wonderful childhood we had enjoying the glamour, magic and Golden Era of Hollywood.