The One with the Thanksgiving Episodes

Chandler: All right I'd like to propose a toast, a little toast here. Ding, ding! I know this isn't exactly the kind of Thanksgiving that all of you planned, but for me, this has been really great. You know, I think because it didn't involve divorce or projectile vomiting. Anyway I was just thinking, I mean, if you had gone to Vail or if you guys had been with your family or if you didn't have syphilis and stuff ... we wouldn't be all together you know, so I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm very thankful that all your Thanksgivings sucked.

Everyone Else: That's so sweet!

Ross: And hey, here's to a lousy Christmas!

Rachel: And a crappy new year.

Chandler: Here, Here!

Friends aired a very special Thanksgiving episode every year in its 10-year run. You can actually watch them all on the WB's site. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure why the WB still has a site. But they do. And they’re showing the full episodes until November 30.

But fun Thanksgiving scenes and episodes don’t stop with our six favorite friends. Here are some of my favorites. I hope you’ll share yours, too!

• How I Met Your Mother: Slap Bet – Three years ago, Barney lost a slap bet to Marshall over Robin’s big secret. Hilarious and the start of a running gag that’s lasted all the way to this Monday’s episode, Slapsgiving.
  
• Ed: Something Old, Something New – In the first season of one of my all-time favorite shows evah, Ed deals with his first Thanksgiving after divorce. Mike bets him ($10, of course) that he can’t get the grocery store manager to tell him where the lettuce is in under a minute. The catch? He must pronounce it “let-oose.” I don’t know why, but this particular $10 bet cracks me up every time. Just like it cracks me up every time Mark and I use this alternate pronunciation. Which might be more often than you’d think.
• Gilmore Girls: A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving – You know I love my Gilmores. In season three, they tried to eat four Thanksgiving dinners in one day, and I fell in love all over again. And that was even before Jess kissed Rory!
• Will & Grace: Moveable Feast – This season four double episode has me laughing every time I watch it. Instead of going their separate ways for the holiday, Will, Grace, Karen and Jack take a road trip, trying to fit in visits to each of their dysfunctional families. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a video clip, so here are a couple other clips instead.
  
• Home for the Holidays – I was introduced to this movie in college, and I have loved it ever since. There’s just something special about a family that’s so messed up, isn’t there? This scene isn’t for the faint of heart, so proceed with caution. But it’s darned funny if you don’t mind some holiday freaking out!
  

What are your favorite Thanksgiving movies or TV episodes? Or songs! Let’s not forget “Turkey for you and turkey for me . . .”!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Praise the LORD.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
(Psalm 106:1)

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The library brings sunny days and sweeps the clouds away

Can I just tell you that I am unable to count to 12 – in English or French, not that the francais comes up often, except maybe it does – without doing it Sesame Street style? Anyone else?

I know, I know. Sesame Street had its big birthday party two weeks ago. Google and the rest of the world shouted their congratulations and wished the kids show well, and it’s all over and done with.

Right?

Except . . . I want to talk about it today.

Being late to the party is fitting, though, because our family has just recently gotten hooked on the friendly neighborhood. Of course, Mark and I are long-time fans, first-time callers of all kinds of Muppets. (Although, to be fair, more me than Mark.) But Annalyn is a newcomer to the Street of Sesame.

More specifically, it’s only been in the past couple of months that we have seen the start of a beautiful relationship between Annalyn and – I’m sure you can guess – Elmo. Sometimes we even pray for Elmo before bed. That’s how much “we” love him.

Actually, I don’t hate Elmo yet. He might have that crazy voice and ridiculous grammar, but that happy-go-lucky guy makes my daughter so happy that I just can’t complain.

The reason she’s just recently discovered Sesame Street is that for most of her life, she took a morning nap. And it coincided, unfortunately, with the daily airing of the show on PBS.

[That didn’t stop me from saying, every time I saw that our friends Amy and Jeremy did this for their kids, “I should record episodes so Annalyn can watch them any time she wants!” Not that I did it. But I totally thought about it.]

Since live TV isn’t working out for us and I couldn’t get it together enough to set the VCR, I finally had a better idea. We get our Elmo and Sesame Street fix from the library.

So far, the biggest hits have been Elmo’s Christmas Countdown (with a Ben Stiller Muppet – brilliant!) and Elmo & the Bookaneers with Tina Fey as a pirate. And yesterday we picked up Sesame Street: Being Green with Paul Rudd, also forever known as Josh from Clueless. Next on the reserve list: straight-up Muppets.

To sum it all up: Sesame Street has just celebrated their 40th anniversary, we love Elmo at our house, and checking out Elmo videos from the library works for me.

Do you watch Sesame Street at your house? What’s your favorite Sesame Street memory or story?

Here's the story of a tiny baby...

You know this girl, right? The feisty one? The willful child? The sweet baby doll who likes to shout, "Hi, Mommy!" and "Thank you, Daddy!" The very kiddo who prays for Elmo and her friends and diapers and her grandparents before bed?

Yep, her.

Well, even though she measured in the 75th percentile for height and weight at her last appointment with the pediatrician, she didn't start out quite so hale and hearty.

She started out like this:

That's right. If you're new around here, you might have missed my long, drawn-out telling of the whole story last fall. Long story short: Annalyn was born seven weeks early because my health was, well, not so healthy.

But despite being born so early and weighing less than 4 lbs., my stubborn little girl never had a problem. She spent two and a half weeks in the NICU, but she never even had to be on oxygen. And when she'd had enough of her feeding tube, she pulled that sucker right out and decided to drink from a bottle from then on!

She was a fighter.

But she was still tiny. And early. And cold. And wrinkly. And cute. But tiny. And she's okay today because of the grace of God - and the years of research that told a whole hospital full of doctors and nurses how to take care of my teeny tiny baby.

I was due to have Annalyn two years ago tomorrow (also known as Thanksgiving Day - what a lesson in giving up on perfect that would have been!). So when I found out that November is Prematurity Awareness Month, I was excited to learn more about other teeny tiny babies. Here's what I found out:

• Nearly 13 million babies worldwide are born prematurely each year, and more than one million die.
• One in eight babies born in our country is premature. That’s more than 1,400 babies each day, more than 543,00 each year.
• The rate of premature birth in America is higher than that of most other developed nations.
• In fact, the rate of premature birth increased by 36 percent between the early 1980s and 2006.
• The cause of premature birth is unknown in 40 percent of cases, but studies suggest that there may be four main routes leading to spontaneous premature labor: infections/inflammation, maternal or fetal stress, bleeding and stretching.
• The March of Dimes funds promising, innovative research into the causes of prematurity. In 2004, the organization created the Prematurity Research Institute, which has already awarded nearly $11 million to 30 grantees.
• Research funded by the March of Dimes demonstrated a potential new approach for diagnosis and treatment of preeclampsia, which is a serious form of high blood pressure that can lead to preterm birth – and what caused my own early delivery.
• The March of Dimes’ NICU Family Support program provides information and comfort to families with newborns in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). In 2008, the program served 84 NICUs and more than 50,000 families.
• You can support the March of Dimes by joining their advocacy efforts and donating to the organization. And I actually learned last night that in November and December, MasterCard is doubling online donations, dollar-for-dollar, made with a MasterCard card!
• You can learn more about premature births and the March of Dimes on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Youtube.
  

Did you know all this?! I sure didn’t. All I knew is that we are so very blessed that Annalyn is healthy. And I knew that many other families have experienced much more difficult struggles with premature births.

This post will be linked up to OhAmanda’s Top Ten Tuesday and Musings of a Housewife's What I Learned This Week. And I’m going to take one more look at my tiny baby.


Who's not so tiny these days!

Do you know anyone who’s had a baby early? Were any of your children born prematurely? Were you born prematurely?

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And the Oscar goes to . . .

See, here's the thing. The only catchy "winner" phrase I could come up with was, "Winner, winner, chicken dinner." And I hate that phrase.

So, instead, the Oscar and the Giving Up on a Perfect Thanksgiving prize goes to ... [envelope, please - or Random.org results, as the case may be] ... Commenter #11, which was Mandi at It's Come to This!

Congratulations, Mandi! Please e-mail me your address, so I can get your fun stuff in the mail! And a big thank you to everyone who joined me for Giving Up on a Perfect Thanksgiving. If I haven't gotten to your comment or post yet, hang tight. I will! (I was out of commission for most the weekend but am back now!)

Also - stayed tuned for Giving Up on a Perfect Christmas, which will take place on December 18. Also known as my birthday, in case you need to know that!

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Giving Up on a Perfect Thanksgiving

Don't even tell me if you're only interested in the giveaway part of this here carnival. Just go ahead and skip to the end. But you should really read the whole post. It's touching. And thought-provoking. And I talk about cats. And Cracker Barrel.

If that's not enough to make you keep reading, well, I just don't know what will do it...

You know how it's so hard to get out the door some days? Especially when you have to be somewhere at a certain time?

It's those days when you can't find your keys or you have a fight with your husband over something stupid. Corralling your kids is like herding cats . . . and keeping your cats out of the garage is like herding kids.

But once you finally get into the car? Whew! You can breathe a sigh of relief.

Sure, you might have to deal with traffic or snow or ice, the kids might be whiny and the car's defrost might smell like mildew, but at least you're on the road.

And then you arrive. It's Thanksgiving, and all the family has gathered to celebrate the holiday. You pile into the house, take off your coats, say your hellos and make the first round of hugs. And then you realize...

You forgot the turkey. At home. Over an hour away.

Now what? Well, if you're my family a few years ago, you simply brown up some hamburger and have tacos for Thanksgiving dinner. Because, really? It's not the turkey that matters.

(And that stressed out family that forgot to pack the turkey in the chaotic mini-van now has dinner for the next week!)

Have you ever had that kind of Thanksgiving?

I wish I were a little more on top of things. Then I would have remembered to dig out and scan a picture of my family on Thanksgiving a few years back. In Florida. At a Cracker Barrel.

It wasn't exactly anyone's idea of the perfect holiday, but my great aunt needed help moving to a new home. And so my mom bought us all tickets and we flew south for the winter - or, at least, for the Thanksgiving weekend.

I won't lie. We didn't have a whole lot of fun that weekend. There was a lot of family stress (Some might even say "dysfunction," but of course I wouldn't. Nope, not me.), and the weather wasn't even that impressive. You'd think Thanksgiving in Florida would be fun - beaches and sunshine and all that, right? Um, no. Not that year.

But here's the thing: We were there for family. And that was the last time we got to see my Granna, my Great Aunt Anna. And I wouldn't trade that for all the homemade turkey dinner and Missouri weather in the world.

So, let's give up on the idea of a "perfect" Thanksgiving. It's okay if your turkey isn't golden brown. Don't worry if you have to celebrate on Friday instead of Thursday. And if someone forgets to put the sugar in the pumpkin pie, let her off the hook (ahem, Shelly).

Because it's not really about the gourmet food. Or the beautiful presentation. Or the autumn decor.

It's about spending time with those family members you only see a few times a year. It's about taking a moment, an hour, a day to thank God for all that He's given us. It's about old and new traditions that have special meaning to our families. It's about the Yahtzee games and the green punch and the Plaza lights and the wishbone and the kids running around and drawing names for Christmas and breaking out the china for the girls and letting the guys watch football - or whatever is important to your family.

Tell me about it. What REALLY matters for your Thanksgiving? When did you have to give up on perfect? What are your plans for next week? Let us have it - in the comments and in your own posts.

That's right! Don't forget - playing along with today's carnival gives you a chance to win one heck of a Thanksgiving prize! One lucky - and, I'm sure, thankful - reader will win this cool stuff:

• An autographed copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl
• A matching adult and child's apron from Dayspring's Life Collection
  
• A limited edition (read: I got it at the book signing) Pioneer Woman Book Tour t-shirt

How can you enter this awesome contest? Simple.

• Leave a comment telling me a Thanksgiving memory - perfect or otherwise.
  
• Or subscribe to this blog (and leave a comment telling me you did it).
  
• Or become a fan of Giving Up on Perfect on Facebook (and leave a comment telling me you did it).
• And yes, if you are already subscribed or a fan, that counts. Just leave a comment telling me.

Comments made by midnight on Saturday, November 21, will be eligible. After I consult Random.org, I'll announce the winner on Sunday. Or Monday. Because I'm giving up on perfect, too, remember!



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Thankful Thursday: The Little Things

Image from The Legacy Builder

Last week, I was all set to tell you about the funny little things I’d thought about over the past week, small blessings that I was truly thankful for. But then I watched the Compassion Bloggers chat from El Salvador and was torn all to pieces.

I didn’t think I had the right to be thankful for the little things. I didn’t think it was okay to focus on the trivial parts of my abundantly rich life. I didn’t think it would be nice to talk about how blessed I am when so many are suffering.

And so I told you about how I pray with Annalyn every night, and we thank God for a place to live and food to eat (and Elmo to play with). And that was true. We do that. I keep it simple, so she can understand and start developing a true sense of gratitude.

But that’s not the end of the story.

See, we’re going through the book of Genesis at church. I’m not even sure what prompted my thoughts on Sunday – perhaps a reminder that God made every living thing on this planet – but I found myself feeling so convicted.

I realized, as I thought about the mountains and the trees and the rocks and the flowers and the birds and the dinosaurs (Just kidding. We did not talk about dinosaurs.) and the animals that God does amazing things. He always has, and He always will.

And He does them for us. So we can see Him and know Him and get a glimpse of His majesty.

Somehow, that thought brought another idea to mind: Maybe it’s okay to talk about how much I appreciate the little things. In fact, maybe it would be wrong not to be grateful for the little things. So, without further ado or deep thought, here are a few things I’m thankful for today:

• Good friends who make me laugh so hard my sides hurt.
• Finding Cinnamon Trident at the Target register a couple weeks ago. Red Trident has been missing for so long . . . and I have been missing it. So I bought two packs (one for me, one for my dad, who's also been missing the red gum).
• Coupons to my favorite department store. Even better? Two coupons - one for $25 off and one for 25% off - that I can use together.
• Getting the opportunity to sing a great song at our Christmas program.
• The chance to write for (in)courage. I love the community and ministry that they've built at Dayspring, and being a part of it has really blessed me this fall!
• Meeting The Pioneer Woman at her book signing on Monday.
• A wonderful friend who not only agreed to watch Annalyn at the last minute but also brought her McDonald's for dinner!
  
• And speaking of my daughter - Annalyn fell off her chair at Chipotle yesterday and hit the concrete floor. Aside from a bump on her head, though, she's completely fine - and apparently able to turn a backflip. I'm so thankful for God's protection (despite us feeding her fast food twice in three days!)!
• The fact that even when you don't technically follow the recipe and the Rice Krispy treats don't turn out exactly right . . . they still taste good.
  

So there you have it. Maybe these things are minor, insignificant, small. But they're mine. And I'm thankful for them.

What are you thankful for today? Link up your thankful posts below or tell us in the comments!

(P.S. This post will be entered in Scribbit's Write-Away Contest. You can do it, too. It's not too late to enter. You have until Sunday!)

“Leftovers are the enemy.”

Or so said Ree Drummond.

On Monday night, I went to a book signing for The Pioneer Woman’s cookbook. My friend Heather and I joined about 500 other people (okay, mostly women) to hear Ree talk about cooking, homeschooling, kids and, of course, Marlboro Man.

The Man himself – and two of their “punks” – were along for the ride. They seemed to be willing participants in the book tour, enjoying themselves by grabbing the microphone (punks) and posing for pictures (Marlboro Man).

Now, before I tell you all the wonderful things Ree said, I’ve got to tell you about the event itself. I’d seen pictures on The Pioneer Woman blog and a couple other sites, and they all showed huge crowds and long lines. But here in Kansas City (where, just for the record, Ree said everyone is “beautiful and kind”), we were remarkably organized.

Of course, by “we,” I mean Rainy Day Books, the local bookstore that hosted the event. And they don’t know who I am. There actually is no “we.”

But if there were a “we,” I’d be extremely proud of us! Because that book signing was one well-oiled machine. We had numbered tickets and could pick them – and our books – up in advance. The doors opened early, and the bookstore only sold as many tickets as the building had seats. (Apparently, they’re real particular about fire codes or some such business.) The president of the bookstore spent 45 minutes asking questions from the audience, and Ree graciously answered them all.

She then gave us a brief Ethel Merman impression, drew winners for a few door prizes and sat down at the signing table. Then we lined up in groups of 50 at a time, according to the number on our tickets, and we got us some signed books. They even had people going down the line with Post-its, writing down the name or personal note we wanted on our books.

Aside from Ree’s little boys grabbing the microphone a few times and driving the bookstore’s president cuh-razy and some women who were too anxious to wait in line for their t-shirts (did I mention we got t-shirts?), the book signing went off without a hitch.

And then there was Ree. The Pioneer Woman herself! In person! She was sweet and witty and charming and beautiful. And I met her and talked to her and didn’t cry one bit. I may have forgotten to tell her my name. But I did not cry. Even when I mentioned Compassion and my friend, Sara.


So there.

Here are a few gems from the question and answer part of the event:

Question: What would your life be like if you hadn’t met Marlboro Man?
Answer: “Oh, I have nightmares about it! I can’t imagine my life without him.”

Question: What was your worst cooking disaster?
Answer: “A vegetable lasagna I made in high school. Instead of ¼ cup of chopped parsley, I used 4 cups. It took me a long time before I could eat parsley!”

Question: What is the best fresh herb to cook with?
Answer: “Right now, rosemary. In the spring, dill. And when I’m hormonal, it’s basil.”

Question: How do you stay sane and maintain balance?
Answer: “That question implies that I am sane!”

Question: Do you ever just fix boxed macaroni and cheese or canned crescent rolls?
Answer: “Oh, sure. My kids have a craving for processed food!”

Ree said that while she can’t respond to comments on her blog, she does read them all. When she was asked if she has a housekeeper and nanny, she laughed. She said she does use a weekly cleaning service, but in her words, “It’s not that glamorous, people.”

Speaking of not-so-glamorous, the topic of rinsing chicken came up. Apparently, the FDA or someone says that rinsing chicken is bad. I don’t know. But what I do know is that The Pioneer Woman agrees with me and rinses her poultry. She said, “I’ve rinsed chicken for 20+ years, and I’m fine . . . relatively speaking.”

She also quoted Steel Magnolias and Napoleon Dynamite, and announced that she’ll be publishing Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, the story of her romance with Marlboro Man. Look for it around Valentine’s Day 2011.

I wish you could have gone to the signing with me. But since you couldn’t, I’m giving away a signed copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl. Come back on Friday with your Thanksgiving stories, and join me in Giving Up on a Perfect Thanksgiving. One lucky reader will win the autographed cookbook, a Pioneer Woman t-shirt and matching adult and child aprons from Dayspring’s Life Collection.

See you on Friday! (But, wait, come back tomorrow for Thankful Thursday, too!)

Bread, bread, bo-bread, banana-fanna, mo-bread.

I love banana bread. Last weekend, I had some past-their-prime bananas. And so I decided to make some banana bread.

It seems so simple, doesn't it?

Apparently not. Now, I don't know how you cook, but when I mix something in a bowl, I start with the wet ingredients. It's how my mom does it, and she knows what she's doing when it comes to cooking things from scratch (and, you know, mixing things in a bowl).

According to Smitty, this is backwards. Feel free to weigh in on this debate in the comments. But I hope you agree with me. And, oh yeah, this is completely not the point of today's post.

Today's post is to tell you the sad tale of my banana bread. See, I mixed up all the wet ingredients, taking great care to measure everything exactly. I was even using the occasion as a teaching moment with Annalyn, pulling up a chair for her to watch and introducing her to the Wide World of Fractions.

(What? You think 2 is too young for that?)

My moment of parenting and baking brilliance came to a halt, however, when I opened the flour canister and realized: We had no flour.

I don't bake very often. There. I said it.

No problem. I was in a domestic zone. I just covered the bowl and sent Mark to the store. He got the flour, I dumped it in, and the bread was off to the oven.

Oh, it smelled so good. And I felt so smug, so proud of myself. And then I took it out of the oven.

And it was terrible.

Please, Blog World, tell me: How do you make banana bread?

Speaking of bad bananas, @badbanana is one funny Twitterer. I'm not quite as witty, but since we're talking Twitter, you can follow me @givingupperfect. (And if you don't do the Twitter thing but want to, check out Allison Worthington's Smart Girls' Guide to Twitter.)

Enough of that. Tell me how to make better banana bread! (And say that three times fast!)

This post will be linked to Tasty Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.

What's the name of his other leg?

I laughed so hard this weekend.

On Friday, I emailed Smitty to let her know that Annalyn had been requesting her presence. More specifically, she’d been saying her name and calling her silly. Repeatedly. Unprovoked.

I figured that was the same as an invite to come hang out.

Mark also reminded me that I’d agreed to watch our 12-year-old nephew on Friday night. I decided the more, the merrier and rented a movie for all of us to watch.

[Unfortunately, it was a chick flick that Michael wasn’t impressed with – and, honestly, neither were we. But, as tends to happen with cheesy, unrealistic rom-coms, we still found plenty to mock and laugh about.]

So we watched the movie and munched on chocolate chip cookies, but the big fun came later. When we broke out the Uno cards.

See, the cable went out Friday night. And since we have cable internet access, that meant no Facebook stalking and no looking up meaningless details on IMDB. Playing cards was a last resort activity.

But oh, how we laughed! I don’t even know what was funny. I, for one, was not laughing at the score, that’s for sure. Because out of four games (one that lasted longer than the movie, it seemed!), I won ZERO. That’s right. I lost. Every single time.

And on top of that? Smitty called me old. Sure, she said that she meant to say something else. But my younger-by-six-months best friend called me old. And beat me at Uno.

And yet . . . we laughed our heads off! Both Smitty and Michael said they laughed harder than they had in a very long time. And we all had aching cheeks and sides from it.

As if that wasn’t enough, Mark and I had some friends over for dinner on Saturday night and we had such a good time! We ate a lot (a LOT) of cheesy Mexican food and some of us (ahem, boys, ahem) drank an entire two-liter of Dr. Pepper. And then we broke out the Trivial Pursuit.

And again, I lost.

But still, we laughed. We talked about our favorite TV shows (of course), my ridiculous blog (yes, this one), how Brittany and I will never be good Baptist wives (sorry), and many other possibly inappropriate hilarious topics.

The game of Trivial Pursuit may have lasted too long (You would not believe how long it took the girls to come up with Terri Hatcher or how long it took the guys to not come up with Moscow!), but the night ended too soon.

We’re going through Genesis at church, and this week we were reminded that Sunday is a day of rest. We took that to heart, so other than church, we didn’t leave the house. We took rainy afternoon naps, watched some football and some Mickey Mouse Playhouse, and ate leftovers and chili.

Nothing too funny about all that relaxing, I suppose, but the rest of the weekend was full of laughter. Just like the old man in Mary Poppins, I love to laugh. Don’t you? I know I don’t do it enough. When was the last time you laughed so hard your sides hurt?