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Sunday, November 29, 2009

My Thomas Kinkade Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in Hawaii--I always LUBBED it! The comings and the goings. The hap hap happy happenings.  The endless ebb and flow of neighbors coming in and out of our day. 

Thanksgiving in Hawaii was just like every other day in the hood, only with Turkey and pie.

(See, when you live in a townhouse far far away, your neighbors are your ohana, which means family, and family means no one gets left alone.)

(Ever.) 

(Even if you scream "LEAVE me ALONE!" at the top of your lungs.)

On the other hand, when you live in a single family home close close at hand, your neighbors are not your ohana. Your ohana is your ohana, and the last thing anyone around here needs is more ohana.

So this year we spent Thanksgiving with our very own ohana for the first time in 20 years. 

And it was sooooo weird--in a magical-hot-apple-cider-roaring-cozy-fire kinda way. 

For a second I thought I was living inside a Thomas Kinkade puzzle.








I've always wondered what the people inside these charming cottages do all day. 

And now I know.  They are listening to the Carpenters Christmas album and baking hot buttered rolls and devouring Black Friday ads.  And their kids are making gingerbread houses and playing Madden 09 and watching the Macy's Day Parade. And their ohana is dropping by, in and out they come, bearing smiles and hugs and fruit salad with chocolate whipped cream.

I wonder if Thomas Kinkade realizes there is such a thing as chocolate whipped cream and that people inside his puzzles are putting it on their fruit salad?   

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think chocolate whipped cream is a Mormon thing because I'm pretty sure my apostate brother thought it up himself  (WHO does that?)  And when he couldn't find any chocolate whipped cream in the grocery store (because DUH! no one has invented it yet because EWW!) he took matters into his own hands with a bottle of Hershey's syrup and some cool whip and then he forced us all at gunpoint to eat it.  

And doggonit, it was delicious. And we liked it. 

But still . . . kinda kooky.

And he's not even my kookiest brother.  I have another brother who runs his car on vegetable oil that he gets from a sushi shop.  And when he drives it smells like french fries.  

True story. The universe is a little bit more at risk for high cholesterol because of my kooky brother.

So if my Dumb and Dumber cooking blog doesn't make me rich and my Windex cologne doesn't make me famous, I'm going to start a sushi shop gas station. Only instead of making sushi I'll make SPAM musubi and instead of pumping vegetable oil, I'll pump soy sauce. That way the universe will crave fried rice, which is lower in saturated trans fat.

So anyways, I had a weird thanksgiving--in a magical-hot-apple-cider-roaring-cozy-fire kinda way. And I even learned something new about darning socks from my mother-in-law.  In fact everyone at the table learned something new about darning socks from my mother-in-law. 

Did you know that darning socks involves a needle and thread? 

And all these years I thought I was darning my holey socks to helk by simply screaming at them. 


P.S. Black Friday stories tomorrow . . .

24 comments:

Dolly said...

Now I know the euphoria everyone has when they are the first to come across a fresh new posting. Of course this may not make the first spot by now since I have already had two motherhood interruptions before I finished the comment.......

Kristina P. said...

How have I not had this chocolate whipped cream? I am a whipped cream addict. Not that crappy Cool Whip stuff.

Dolly said...

You're cracking me up so much. But I am still trying to figure out if you had the whole day of Thanksgiving in your home with extended family popping in and out or were there actual set times for meals with this group from this side of the family, etc? I don't know why I am trying to figure it out, but it seems important to me right now to know how Ohana's work in Utah during the holidays.

Probably because this is one of the reason's I have avoided Utah..... too much ohana from two families and no chance of being "left alone"..... EVER.

Welcome to the Garden of Egan said...

If you survived chocolate whipped cream you can survive Thanksgiving in Utah amongst the fam. Good for you!
I'm sure you were wishing for moments that you were wearing bare feet and sifting through the sand.
Hopefully you can become one with your Thomas Kincaid family.

TisforTonya said...

my sister in law actually darns their socks... true story. We all think she's crazy :)

and yeah, Thanksgiving is always a little too much Ohana to handle, but I can always claim the turkey has made me sleepy and escape to my laptop (except when the inlaws wireless isn't functional!)

Jami said...

I think it's funny you call them TK puzzles. I think that they might have possibly been paintings before they hit the puzzle market. :)

I've thought about going to bio-diesel, but the thought of begging McD's for their used oil was a little freaky. But hey, I could go for the sushi shop. Now I'll think about it again.

The Crash Test Dummy said...

Okay Dolly, FYI, we cooked and hosted Thanksgiving at our house. But it was only my mom, my IL's and my apostate brother's family. Other family dropped by during the day to say hi and visit for a bit. The rest of the family was at in-laws. We had my hub's side dinner on Wednesday night so that was the big gathering. We LOVE to cook the day away so we didn't want to go somewhere else on Thanksgiving.

Kritta22 said...

Ohana is no where around here. i spent most of the day on the phone with my sister and Mom. I missed my ohana!

Can't wait for black friday stories!

April said...

So does that mean you can't SHOUT out a stain either? What the what? I was wondering why yelling at my laundry didn't remove the stain! Bless its heart!

We came to my sister's for a post Thanksgiving feast and to watch some silly game in Provo. I'll be here until Wed. We might have to plan something!

Jillybean said...

I'm not a big fan of the whipping cream, but the chocolate might just change my mind....

Does anyone really darn socks anymore? At the Wal Mart you can buy like 6 pairs of socks for $5.

Sounds like you had a nice Thanksgiving, I can't wait to hear about the shopping.

The Crash Test Dummy said...

hahahahah April about shouting it out. I wish I had thought of that one. And Jilly,NO, no one darns socks anymore. Except my darn MIL. Ain't she a cutey patootey?

springrose said...

Thanksgiving with my ohana would be my nightmare! Seriously!! Not a fun time. Can't wait for your Black friday stories!!

Homer and Queen said...

I wish I lived in a TK puzzle! Where everyone is happy, happy, happy! April, you and I should have hooked up before the game!

Nutty Hamster Chick said...

I am glad that you had such a good time with family. I know that is a big part of why you moved.

I am with Queen, how do you get inside of one of those puzzels?

Do you think if I went to the back of my closet I could find a secret passage way?

The Crash Test Dummy said...

Oh my goodness, guys. I have always wanted to live inside a Thomas Kinkade puzzle too. I would choose the puzzle over the painting because there are always missing pieces and I feel more comfortable with missing pieces since I'm always missing pieces.

Ooh, and I want to find a secret passage in the back of my closet too!!!

April said...

I would have to get new glasses to live in a TK pic. It's a little blurry or maybe I just need to squint.

Queen, we totally should have met up before the game! I could have won you a shade shirt at the Tail Gate party! I won myself one! I also won a BYU Towel. Don't be so impressed with that one tho. They were giving them away to everyone who touched the football. hehehe!

OldBoatGuy said...

I never thought of teaching my kids to darn soxs. Yes, a needle, thread and a light bulb.

Mariko said...

I was kind of hoping that people in T.K. houses were wondering how the heck they could turn their lights off so they could go to sleep.
Yep. We had 34 people for dinner and I was sort of wishing that our Ohana could be just our family friend Ohana that was exclusive rather than inclusive of all those random Ohana that happened to walk in the door before dinner. Can't we be a sort of open exclusive Ohana?

Martha said...

Glad you had a nice Thanksgiving. Dolly and kids came and we ate outside. It took hours to make all the food and then 15 mins to consume. Dolly brought the pies and we don't care if they are frozen. We'll eat anything.

The boys then took off to surf. In between everything we were putting down the floors.

Deb, you should see the floors. They are uber nice. I guess I'll take some pics. I feel like I'm finally living in a TK puzzle house. Especially cuz we put up the tree and all the Christmas decor yesterday. I painted the kitchen table and chairs black and they are so cool. I also ordered a new rug and have to pick it up from Lowes someday.

Tell W & G that Keonilei & Bralynn miss them super bad. Every two seconds they are talking about them and wanting to call them. It's their main topic of conversation.

Nan has been doing girl things with them. You won't believe it! She's finally starting to wear plaid shorts and a little bit cute shirts. She even let me braid her hair!!! Shocker. Then I caught them all playing make up and dress up!! I told the other kids not to tease her because then she'll regress into her tomboy self.

Save some cider and roaring fire for us.

The Crash Test Dummy said...

Ha ha ha Martha, Funniest thing . . . W and G already heard somehow about Nan has turned into a girl. They are so shocked and disgusted. hee hee W said "NAN IS A GIRL NOW! That is SO sad!"

Poor nan. Maybe they will feel differently when they see her.

Garrett found out that Braelyn likes Aio and he was kinda ticked. ha ha

I'm so happy about your uber cute floors and slick black table. You not only live in a TK puzzle house you almost OWN your own TK puzzle house. Woohoo!

We are saving plenty of roaring fire and hot apple cider for you. You guys will be here in less than 3 weeks. We are so excited.

Haha Mariko, maybe the people in the TK puzzle houses are worrying about their electricity bill now that the economy is so bad.

Exlusive ohana?? That's an oxymoron, ain't it? I wish I had been one of those random ohana that wondered in before dinner so you could get some photographic evidence of me looking bee-U-tiful.

April, I'm impressed anyway. You go girl. So were the fans just NUTs or what? Were they just crazy? You need to blog about it.

Old Boat Guy. what do you need a light bulb fer?

OldBoatGuy said...

The light bulb holds the sock out tight so you can use the needle to darn the sock. That way you can use a cross pattern like weaving a rug, etc.

Man! I thought your mother-in-law taught you how. What were you doing during the lesson?

Ridhi Sharma said...

I need help with a letter sequence puzzle - it's not for school, it's for my mom actually?

THX
Brad Fallon

sharma said...

I wonder if Thomas Kinkade realizes there is such a thing as chocolate whipped cream and that people inside his puzzles are putting it on their fruit salad?
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sharma said...

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